Timebreaker
by Shallow15
Summary: This time, the girl who saves the world may bring it to an end. Characters copyright 2006 Disney. COMPLETE. Added deleted scene.
1. Prologue

**TIMEBREAKER**

_A "Kim Possible" fanfic by Erin Mills_

**PROLOGUE**

_This is the way the world ends…_

She was running through the blasted streets of Middleton. Around her houses were aflame, sending clouds of smoke into the air. Shattered and useless fire hydrants spouted gouts of water into the air, spilling over sodden ground that helped no one. Cars were overturned, or crashed into trees, lightposts, and in one instance in the living room of a nearby house.

Through all of this, she could hear the screams and cries of innocent people in the distance. She winced as she doubled back and began running towards the center of town in search of any survivors.

_This is the way the world ends…_

The majority of the town center was destroyed. City Hall was rubble. In the distance she could see Club Banana was on fire. As she scanned the area, looking for anyone who might still be alive in the wreckage, her eyes lit upon the Bueno Nacho.

Or at least, the wreckage that was occupying the lot where the Bueno Nacho used to be. Unlike much of the rest of the town, the fire seemed to have burned out, leaving charcoaled ruins, and a half demolished giant sombrero. She stared in shcok. How had she missed this in all the chaos?

Then she noticed the person trapped under the brim of the giant sombrero.

_This is the way the world ends…_

She dashed across the street, and knelt down, grabbing the wrists of the trapped person. She tried pulling them out from under the weckage, but quickly stopped when she realized that there was no pulse.

She was too late.

"_But..I'm NEVER too late,"_ she thought. She looked around at the destroyed town, then down at the person she failed to save. Her eyes widened, as she recognized him.

"Ron…no…"

_This is the way the world ends…_

His face was streaked with soot, and dried blood coagulated in his hair. In one of his hands was the charred corpse of a naked mole rat. The other was clenched tightly. She reached down and pried his fingers open, trying not to think about how cold they were.

Several plastic packets fell onto the ground. She picked one up and blinked back the tears that were beginning to form. "_Diablo sauce. The silly idiot must have been trying to save two of the three things he always said he loved the most."_

The next thing she knew she was running through the streets again, trying not to lose it completely. Memories rose unbidden in her mind, memories that threatened to overwhelm her and leave her cringing in the middle of the destruction around her.

She tripped over a raised chunk of asphalt and rolled headlong into an alleyway, scraping her arms and sliding to a halt next to a wall. She tried to get up and found she just couldn't force herself to do so. She had failed.

The girl who could do anything had completely and utterly failed.

"This is the way the world ends…"

She looked up and saw that she wasn't alone in the alley. Further down was another young woman, in much the same pose she was in. Knees drawn up, arms clasped around them, head bowed. The other woman was rocking back and forth, muttering to herself.

"This is the way the world ends…"

The other woman was dressed in a tattered green and black uniform. Soot smudges were across the bright green material, and she saw blood welling from a gash in her arm. Stringy black hair draped across her head, obscuring her face.

She stood up and crept down the alley, knowing who she was looking at. The one person she never expected to see in this state.

"This is the way the world ends…"

She cautiously reached out a hand, stopping just before she made contact. She bit ber bottom lip, unsure where this was a good idea. Shego hated looking weak, and if she got her attention, who was to say the ex-superhero wouldn't try to claw her face off, or just blast her altogether?

"This is the way the world ends…" Shego murmured again.

But then again, she was the only person who could tell her what was going on. She put her hand on Shego's shoulder.

Instantly, Shego's head snapped up, her eyes glowing with a emerald brilliance she had never seen before. Shego's fists flared up with her trademark green energy fields. Her lips curled into an expression she had never seen before. Far more than Shego's general expression of contempt and need to destroy her for being one of the good guys.

This was an expression of pure unbridled murderous rage.

"This is the way the world ends…" Shego said slowly, her voice harsh and raspy. She pulled back one of her fists.

"..AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

She threw up her arms to shield her face, but it was too late as her vision was filled with green…

…and Kim Possible found herself landing flat on her face on the floor of her bedroom. Hard.


	2. Around the World in 12 hrs 22 mins

**CHAPTER 1: Around the World in 12 Hours and 22 Minutes**

HOTEL DE LA SOL, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

(7:30 AM Middleton Daylight Time)

"Ah, yes," Senor Senior, Sr. said into his elegant and highly expensive cell phone. "So the…merchandise I requested will be in place in three days time?"

He listened to the response and grinned. "Excellent. I trust there were no difficulties in arranging the placement?"

In the deck chair opposite the multibillionaire-turned-upervillain, his son, Senor Senior, Jr., looked up and snorted. "Hmph. Why always with the innuendos, Father? You own the satellite and the company that is placing it into space. I am the only one here. Why are you talking to your foreman as if someone is watching our every move?"

Senior frowned. "One moment, please, Mr. Robinson," He took the phone away form his ear and covered the small speaker with his free hand. "How many times must I tell you, my son? A villain always implies elements of his diabolical plan on public communication devices. It's –"

"—Tradition." Junior finished, sighing and going back to his magazine. Senior's frown deepened, and he returned to his phone call.

"I apologize for the interruption, Mr. Robinson. The laser was attached with no difficulty? Good. And the programming? Wonderful. You can expect to see an increase in your paycheck this week. Keep up the good work. Goodbye."

Senior clicked the phone off and looked at his son. "How is it, Junior, that you take an interest in villainy when it appeals to your ego, but not when it could secure your future as the ruler of the world?"

Junior yawned. "I do not wish to rule the world, Father. It is too much of a…how do the Americans say?...a hassle."

"Nevertheless," Senior replied, "Tradition requires at least one world domination plot be made at some point in our careers and it is time we made ours."

"Not interested." Junior responded. Senior sighed.

"Let me put it to you this way, my son. If we are successful, you will have the rest of your life to fritter away on whatever things you decide to amuse yourself with." With that, Senior picked up the newspaper and sat back, letting his words sink in.

"How long until the launch?" Junior asked.

EN ROUTE TO MIDDLETON HIGH SCHOOL, MIDDLETON, USA

(8:42 AM Middleton Daylight Time)

Kim Possible groaned and rubbed her eyes. After the ngihtmare she had, it had been almost impossible for her to get back to sleep.

_It was so real, _she thought, _and Shego was…frightening. God only knows what would happen if she really DID get to be that powerful._

"Hey, KP, you okay?" Ron Stoppable, Kim's best friend, sidekick and, she supposed, boyfriend asked. "You look beat."

"Sorry, major nightmare last night. About a 9.7 on the Weirdity Factor."

"Wow. Must have been some nightmare." Ron paused. "It wasn't the one about being locked out of the locker room in your underwear again, was it? You know, the one with the ferrets and the dancing cheeseburger?"

Kim quriked an eyebrow. "That was your nightmare, Ron. You had it last week."

"Oh, right." Ron said, "So what was this one? Bonnie get elected principal and have you expelled?"

"Total destruction of the world and a nearly godlike Shego." She didn't mention Ron's own death in her dream, nor the overriding sense of hoplessness and futility that accompanied it.

Ron whistled. "Sure leaves the dancing cheeseburger in the dust."

"Oh yeah." Kim agreed.

"Still, just a nightmare and you're awake now. It can't hurt you anymore, right?"

"Right…" Kim trailed off. _He's right. It was just a nightmare._

_So why can't I shake this feeling that something really bad is going to happen?_

SOMEWHERE IN THE JUNGLES OF ZAIRE, AFRICA

(10:37 AM Middleton Daylight Time)

Lord Montgomery Fiske, more commonly known these days as Monkey Fist, made the final swing over the gulley separating him from the legendary Hidden Temple of the Silver Monkey God. Years of searching had finally paid off. Soon, the Scepter of Mandrilla would be his, and from there the power of the ancient simian sorcerer O-oook would be his to command.

"And once I have the scepter," he said to himself, "I will use it to call forth O-oook and use his Mystical Monkey Power to wipe homo sapiens from the face of the earth and once again take this planet back for monkey kind!"

The half man/ half monkey looked up at the massive gates of the temple, ornate stone and silverwork depicted a small monkey holding an ornate scepter. Lines radiated from the staff to a giant orangutan that stood towering over a burning village, tiny human figures running in terror around it's feet.

"I don't know who carved this, but I LIKE their style." Monkey Fist grinned and began scanning the doors, looking for the switch or device that would allow him access to the temple.

POIPU BAY GOLF COURSE, HAWAII, USA

(11:18 AM Middleton Daylight Time)

In the early Hawaii dawn, a short bald Scotsman complete with tam and kilt stood on the shore of the main water hazard of the 14th hole at Poipu Bay, gloating to himself.

"Time to show these Yanks why ye canna ignore the auld country when havin' yer so called 'Grand Slam.'" Duff Killigan smirked and clicked the remote control in his hand.

The surface of the water hazard roiled and bubbled as something large and metallic rose to the surface. A glistening snout dripped water over two rows of jagged metal teeth. As the robotic device emerged a hatch opened in the top. Killigan jumped into the cockpit of the behemoth and closed the plexiglass canopy.

"And now, the PGA will learn the wrath of an irate Scottish golfer! Take this, ye wee puny putting green!"

With that, Killigan's giant robotic alligator proceeded to destroy the back nine of Poipu Bay Golf Course. However, this would have no effect on the PGA Grand Slam, as the tournament was held in November and it was currently the middle of May.

Unaware of this, Killigan planned his next move, which was to take care of that little spoilsport Kim Possible before she could ruin everything like she always did.

"The lassie's gonna find herself in the keech this time, an' no mistake." Killigan sneered as he piloted the alligator towards the front nine and the club house.

MIDDLETON HIGH SCHOOL, MIDDLETON, USA

(12:48 PM Middleton Daylight Time)

"…Tempex Technologies has announced that they will be testing their new time travel device sometime in the next month. If the test is successful, Tempex believes safe and viable time travel may be possible in the next five years…"

Kim listened to the InSchoolNewz broadcast with half an ear. She was still worrying about her nightmare, especially the parts with Ron and Shego. Those parts were way too real to be just a dream. It seemed more like…a warning.

And what did Shego mean that the world ending would be her fault?

_How can I cause the world to end? I'm the girl who saves the world. If anyone would cause the world to end, it would be Shego with more power than what she has right now…_

"MISS POSSIBLE!"

Kim was started out of her thoughts by the teacher's shout. She blinked and found the entyire room staring at her.

"Would you care," said the teacher, "to tell us the salient points of today's news broadcast?'

"Uhhh…" Kim grinned nervously and blushed.

THE TEMPLE OF THE SILVER MONKEY GOD, ZAIRE, AFRICA

(2:17 PM Middleton Daylight Time)

Monkey Fist completed an astounding series of flips and handsprings over the sequence of stone columns set in a lake of boiling lava before the altar in the center of the Temple of the Silver Monkey God.

He landed in the First Position and dusted himself off, allowing himself a prideful smirk. Clearly the worshippers of the Silver Monkey God weren't expecting anyone without actual monkey power to reach the altar.

"Of course," Monkey Fist said to himself, "They probably weren't expecting a human/monkey hybrid to do it either." He let out his trademark chimp laugh and strolled up to the altar.

On a silver rack rested a three foot long golden staff, topped with a large crystal carved in the shape of a mandrill's head. The Scepter of Mandrilla. Monkey Fist frowned and stroked his chin, looking at the rack. This seemed a bit too easy, even if the worshippers of the Silver Monkey God didn't expect any non-simian beings to get this far.

He glanced down at the floor. The stone pillar the altar was supported on had a series of concentric rings grooved into it's surface, with the raised altar pedestal forming the center ring. The back of the altar featured a larger redision of a ailver ape whose long arms were raised, the fingers hovering over the altar about six feet above the scepter, almost protecting it.

The self proclaimed Master of Monkey Power tapped his lips with an index finger, then grinned as the solution presented itself. He somersaulted into another handspring and gripped the drooping fingers of the silver monkey statue with his feet, hanging upside down over the altar. He stretched out his entire body and snatched the scepter form it's holder.

His grin widened when the entire column began to shake and the rings of the pillar slid one by one into the lake of lava, leaving only the central altar pedestal standing. Monkey Fist transferred the scepter to his mouth, clenching it in his teeth, before using all four hands to climb to the upper side of the statue's fingers.

Taking the scepter out of his mouth he scanned the rest of the chamber and found, as he expected, a small opening near the top of the domed ceiling. A ledge ran along the far wall. Too far for any human to leap, but a piece of cake for anyone with the powers of a monkey at their disposal.

Monkey Fist stepped back, made sure the scepter was secured in the belt of his gi, the took a running jump across the lake of lava, managing to grip the ledge. He pulled himself up onto it, dashed along the wall, then used the conveinently placed hand and foot holds in the stonework to reach the opening in the dome. He squeezed through a small tunnel and found himelf emerging into the warm afternoon sun.

Monkey Fist pulled the scepter form his belt and held it aloft. The sunlight that poked through the jungle canopy refracted through the crystal mandrill head, casting rainbow patterns on the ground. He laughed again. The Scepter of Mandrilla was his, and soon, the world would tremble before the awesome power of the Simian Sorcerer O-oook.

Monkey Fist clutched the scepter close to his chest. But, first things first. There was still the pretender who claimed to be the true master of Mystical Monkey Power, and that annoyingly chirpy little brat Kim Possible to deal with.

He dashed back through the jungle to his base camp. Plans had to be made.

HOTEL DE LA SOL, BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

(3:26 PM Middleton Daylight Time)

Senor Senior, Sr. let out a small chuckle as he hung up his cell phone. "Junior, pack your bags. It is time we move our operation to a new location."

Junior groaned. "But Father, Buenos Aires is so nice this time of year. The tanning is perfect. Why do we have to leave?"

Senior rolled his eyes to the heavens and rubbed his temples. "Because, my son, when the sattelite is in place, we are going to need to test it, and observe the Orbital Hypno-Ray in action on a smaller scale before we can use it against the entire world. Therefore, we need to relocate ourselves to the testing area."

Junior looked over his sunglasses at his father. "And where exactly would this testing area be?"

Senior grinned. "A good villain always knows when to kill two birds with one stone. We are going to test the Hypno-Ray and remove a certain teen hero from the equation in advance. We will be going to Middleton, Junior. Where, as I understand it, the tanning weather is quite excellent."

"I will need to buy more sunscreen." Junior repiled. Senior's grin faded.

"Yes, my son, you do that." he said, and went to pack his bags, wondering if the stress was truly worth it.

BUENO NACHO, MIDDLETON, USA

(4:39 PM Middleton Standard Time)

"All right, Rufus," Ron said to his pet naked mole rat, "On three…THREE!"

Rufus jumped into the air atop the mountain of nachos on the table. Beside him, Ron tore into his own equally impressive pile with both hands. Man and mole rat chowed down, sending splashes of molten cheese and tortilla shrapnel in every direction. 14.37 seconds later the nachos were gone, and a considerably bloated Ron and Rufus reclined, Ron in his seat, Rufus in one of the paper nacho containers.

"Well, KP, who won?" Ron asked.

"Yeah!" Rufus echoed.

"Huh?" Kim blinked, and looked at the two of them. "Oh. Sorry, Ron, I wasn't paying attention."

Ron frowned. "Okay, KP, spill it. You've been acting like a zombie all day. What's going on?"

Kim shook her head. "It's nothing, really. Just that stupid nightmare. It was really vivid. Almost real."

"Oh yeah, I know how that goes." Ron frowend as he remembered some his own least favorite nightmares. "Stupid tap dancing cheeseburger." he muttered.

"Huh?" Kim asked.

"Nothing!" Ron said, focusing on Kim.

Kim sighed. _Might as well just ask him and get it over with, or it'll be bothering me forever._

"Ron," she began, "If something catastrophic were to happen to the Bueno Nacho, you wouldn't try to do something…stupid would you?"

"Castastrophic? You mean like this Bueno Nacho discontinuing the Naco like that stupid one in Go City?"

"No, Ron. I mean, if the Bueno Nacho were to get…well..destroyed—"

"DESTROYED!" Ron exclaimed.

"'Estroyed?" Rufus sat up in shock, but his engorged stomach caused him to fall over onto his back.

Ron frowned and fixed Kim with a steely glare. "Kim Possible, don't you even joke about such a thing. The Bueno Nacho is timeless. If it were to go, it would be..well…the end of the world as we know it."

Kim looked back at Ron with an expression he hadn't seen before. An expression that caused him to wonder just what had happened in that nightmare. An expression that bordered on the unthinkable.

Kim Possible was afraid.

"I'm serious, Ron," she continued. "If the Bueno Nacho were on the verge of being destroyed, you wouldn't do something stu-er-silly like go in to save a few packets of Diablo sauce, right?"

Ron blinked. "No…no! I mean that would be silly. I mean, the Diablo sauce is good but, I mean, jeez, to risk your life over it. That would be more than silly, it'd be downright stupid."

Kim looked at him some more, then her expression softened and relaxed, and her bright smile returned. "Okay…good. I just had to be sure."

"This is about that nightmare, isn't it?" Ron asked.

"Yeah, but I think I can handle it now." Kim stood up and looked down at him. "So, you think you and Rufus are up for a rematch? I'm paying."

"Booyah!" Ron and Rufus cried, all concerns erased in the prospect of a free nacho eating contest.

THE ISLAND LAIR OF DR. DRAKKEN, SOMEWHERE IN THE CARRIBEAN

(6:38 PM Middleton Daylight Time)

"Shego! SHEEEEE-GO!" Dr. Drakken cried as he stalked through the halls of his lair. "For crying out loud, what is the point of even setting the lab up if she's not even going to be around to show off?"

He went down a flight of stairs to where Shego's room was. Normally he didn't even come to this section of the lair, since Shego had let him know in no uncertain terms that she'd hang him by his nostrils from the highest rafter in the tower if he came anywhere near her room without permission.

_But she's not answering and I've been busy in the labfor the last week or so. God, I HOPE she didn't take another tutoring job or get stuck with those brothers of hers. She's always in a rotten mood after that. _

He stopped outside Shego's door and braced himself. He raised his fist and knocked gently on the door. "Shego? Okay, she's not here time to goAAAAACK!"

The "AAAAACK!" was because a green glowing fist had just grabbed Drakken's collar and yanked him painfully into the range of Shego's extremely irate expression.

"What did I tell you about coming to my room uninvited?" Shego said.

"Uh..you'd hang me from my nostrils from the highest rafter in the tower?"

"Right. Let's go." Shego started to drag Drakken down the hall.

"Oh come on, Shego! What was I supposed to do? I haven't seen you in a week, I just wanted to make sure you were here! C'mon, please?"

Shego rolled her eyes. "All right. Fine." She released the evil doctor. "Now, what's so important that you just HAD to risk serious sinus cavity damage by coming down here?"

Drakken grinned. "The final humilating demise of Kim Possible."

Shego quirked an eyebrow. "You have my attention."

Drakken began gesturing grandly as he and Shego walked back to the lab. "For the last couple of years I've asked myself, why is a nosy teenaged brat and her pet buffoon causing us so many problems?"

"Because your plans almost always border on the completely asinine?" Shego volunteered.

"Your sarcasm isn't making this any more dramatic, you know." Drakken said, frowning. Shego pulled a face and waved for him to continue

"No, the main problem is that Kim Possible is ludicrously agile, even for a cheerleader. So, I have come up with the ultimate solution." He reached into his coat and tossed Shego an oversized gun with an odd trumpet shaped barrel.

"A weird-ass gun. This is your 'ultimate solution' to take out Possible?"

"No," Drakken said as they approached the door to the lab. "That gun fires a superstrong liquid adhesive. It sprays it liberally over the target so no matter whrere they come down, they aren't going to get back up again. You will spray down Kim Possible and the buffoon with the adhesive. Then once they're both laying on the ground…"

"Lying," Shego corrected.

"What?" Drakken asked.

"Lying," Shego repeated.

"Who's lying?"

"Possible and her little boytoy."

Drakken frowned. "They don't normally lie, do they? Even to us? It just seems out of character for them."

Shego rolled her eyes. "And Who's on first. So once they're lying on the ground…"

"Laying," Drakken said.

"WHATEVER!" Shego cried. "When they're stuck to the ground, then what?"

Drakken began to laugh. "Then I will unleash the final weapon that will spell Kim Possible's ultimate doom!"

He threw open the doors with a flourish, and Shego recoiled at the smell coming from the lab. Her eyes watered and she peered through the tears to see a massive expanse of chrome and gray. She wiped her eyes and blinked, making sure she was seeing what she thought she was seeing.

"Elephants? You'r ebig plan is to trample her with elephants?"

"Correction," Drakken grinned. "Cybernetically enhanced genetically engineered battle elephants. She won't stand a chance!"

Shego glared at Drakken. Drakken's grin faded from his face.

"What!" he said, annoyed.

"Come on, you have a date with some severe sinus pain."

THE POSSIBLE HOME, MIDDLETON, USA

(7:04 PM, Middleton Daylight Time)

"All right, Kimmie," Dr. Lisa Possible said as she zipped up her overnight bag. "The number for the Institute is on the fridge. We'll be dropping your brothers off at Aunt Penny's. If there's any problems, just call the Institute and have Mrs. Johnson page either me or Dad."

"Okay, Mom." Kim said from the couch, "Say hi to Dr. Banzai for me. Oh and tell Reno he still owes me lunch for losing that darts game."

Lisa smirked. "Can do." She turned to the staircase. "Tim, Jim, Dear! Hurry up, we're going to miss our flight."

Tim and Jim Possible, or as Kim referred to them, the Tweebs, dashed down the stairs and out the door. Mercifully, they didn't stop to bother Kim on the way out. Kim's father, Dr. Timothy Possible came down shorty afterward with a pair of suitcases.

"Now, Kim, make sure the doors are locked, and that you're home by ten on those nights you aren't out helping somebody." he said, manuevering the cases to the door

"And Kimberly," Lisa said, a serious expression on her face. "Ronald is to be out of this house by ten as well. Understood?"

"Yes, Mom. Ron and I know the rules. Ron will be out of here by ten if he's over here."

"And no other visitors at the house." Timothy said. "I don't want you bringing hom anymore circus folk that that girl in the green and black. I didn't care for the way she looked at me."

"Yes, Dad." Kim got up from the couch and hugged both her parents. "It'll be fine. You'll only be gone for three days. What's the worst that could happen?"

THE POSSIBLE HOME, MIDDLETON, USA

(7:49 PM Middleton Daylight Time)

Kim had curled up on the sofa and was watching "Casablanca" on the Classic Movie Channel when the doorbell rang.

And rang.

And rang.

"Who the hell is that?" Kim said, turning the TV town. As she went to the foyer of the house, the doorbell ceased ringing and whoever was on the front step began pounding on the door, nearly causing it to break the hinges. Somebody wanted in. Badly.

But, no sooner had the violent pounding started, than it quickly stopped.

Kim frowned and instinctively fell back into a battle stance, one hand on the doorknob. "Who is it?" she called.

"Possible…open the door," came a faint but somewhat familiar voice. "I need to talk to you."

Kim braced herself and opened the door, allowing a battered, bloody, and half-dead Shego to collapse on the floor . Kim stared down in shock.

"I am SO glad my parents are out of town."

The clock showed 7:55 PM.


	3. Of Armageddon and Indoor Plumbing

**CHAPTER 2: Of Armageddon and Indoor Plumbing**

Kim sat in the easy chair, staring at the unconscious Shego on the sofa, not sure in the slightest what to do. Logically, she knew she should just call the police and have her arrested, but Shego looked bad. Nightmare level bad.

Shego looked like she hadn't eaten in months. Her eyes were hollow and sunken, there was a scar running across her forehead that looked fairly fresh. Her uniform was ripped in several places and caked with dirt and what looked like blood. Her hair was stringy and tangled. And even asleep, her muscles were tense, as if she expected to have to wake up and start running immediately.

_Okay, let's break this down. Shego looks like hell and is passed out on my couch. Should call the police but if she's gone through anything like I imagine she did to talk to me, I probably ought to listen to her._

_Options: 1. Call the police. No good. She'd be arrested, and I wouldn't find out what she wants. Plus once she broke out, she'd probably come right back here and trash the house trying to pound me._

_2. Call Ron. Also no good. He'd freak out and she'd get ticked and the house gets destroyed._

_3. Call Wade. Good idea, but I doubt he'd have any advice other than to call the cops._

_4. Call the parents. Parents are in New Jersey, at an important symposium and would probably call the police before ducking out to come back here. Not really a good idea._

Kim sighed. _Option 5 then. Wait for her to wake up and find out what she wants._

Kim leaned back in the chair, wondering if it was appropriate to channel surf while one's archenemesis was asleep on the sofa. "What did I do to deserve this?" she said out loud.

"You were born."

Kim's eyes widened and she looked at the couch, where Shego was dragging herself upright. "Um…Shego…uh…"

Shego looked at Kim in exasperation. "Spare me the niceties, Possible. I have one question: Where's the nearest bathroom with a shower?"

"Shower? Um, there's one next to the guest room through there." Kim gestured towards the dining room. Shego nodded, got up and walked a little unsteadily through the archway. A few moments later, Kim heard the door slam and the water begin to run.

She looked at the archway to the living room for a few minutes, not believing what just happened. She sat back in the easy chair again, not sure what to do. In her years of crimefighting, she never really had to wonder what the protocol was when your archenemy woke up from being passed out on your sofa and began using the shower in the guest bathroom.

She got up and walked through the dining room to the guest bathroom. The shower was still running, and under the sound of the running water Kim could hear…singing?

Shego was singing. And quite well, aside from the parts where it sounded like she was gargling with the water. Kim shook off her surprise and knocked on the door.

"Shego, would you come out here please?"

"Buzz off, Possible! I'll be out in a minute. If you don't mind, I haven't had a decent shower in about eight months. Excuse me if I decide to savor the experience." There was a pause and then the singing started again. "Yeah, they were dancin' and singin' and movin' to the groovin' and just when it hit me somebody turned around shouted PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC WHITE BOY! PLAY THAT FUNKY MUSIC RIIIIIIIIGHT!"

_Okay, _Kim thought, _I'm going to go get a soda, go back to the living room and watch TV until Shego comes to her senses and tries to kill me, like normal._

Almost an hour later, Kim heard the water cut off. She resisted the temptation to be waiting outside the bathroom. She didn't want to run the risk of ticking Shego off before she found out what the superpowered crook wanted. She tried to focus on the movie on the TV, but she found she kept glancing towards the dining room entrance and the sounds of Shego clanging around in the bathroom.

Kim tried to force herself to relax, but her nervousness quickly returned when she heard noises coming from the kitchen.

_What the hell is she doing in there? Making a sandwich?_

There was a sound of drawers opening and closing, then of the fridge being rummaged through, then the sound of chopping. After a while, the curiosity got the better of her, and Kim got up and stormed into the kitchen.

She stopped short in the doorway and stood there,slackjawed at what she found.

Shego was standing at the counter, eating a huge turkey sandwich, wearing only a bath towel. Her eyes were closed and her cheeks bulged slightly as she chewed the sandwich, making contented noises.

"Mmmmm…God, I love turkey." Shego said around the mouthful of food. "I mean, it'll probably go straight to my hips, but who gives a shit?"

"Ummm..yeah." Kim said, then decided it was time to stop being confused and get some answers. "Shego, what the hell are you doing in my kitchen wearing only a towel?"

Shego swallowed and gave Kim a devious grin. "What? You want me to ditch the towel, Kimmie?"

Kim felt the blush form and decided to head it off. "What. Do. You. Want?"

Shego frowned, and Kim braced for the flaming green claws of doom. Then Shego's expression softened. "Right. You're right. Business first. Then I can torment you at my leisure."

"Shego…" Kim's voice held a note of warning.

"I only want one thing from you, Possible." Shego said, putting the sandwich down. "I want you to save the world."

"From what?" Kim asked. "Drakken's latest lame brained scheme to rule the world?"

Shego's frown returned, and her lip curled into a snarl. "No. Worldwide nuclear holocaust. Or, if you can't handle the big words, I want you to stop World War III."

A few minutes later, they were sitting at the kitchen table, Shego having changed back into her uniform.

"Spill." Kim said.

Shego looked at her. "Get your little webgeek on the line. Don't tell him I'm here. Ask him where I am right now."

Kim quriked an eyebrow. "Riiiight…"

"Do it." Shego replied.

Kim stared Shego down, then reached into her pocket and pulled out the Kimmunicator. "Wade?"

"Hey, Kim, what's up?" The pintsized webmaster responded.

"Major hunch alert, Wade. I need you to try to track down Shego."

"Shego? You looking for a fight?"

"Just do it, Wade. I'm getting a vibe it's important."

"Okay…one sec." Wade klicked off and Kim looked up at Shego.

"What in the—" she began. Shego held up a hand.

"Wait." She said.

The Kimmunicator beeped. "Go Wade." Kim said, not taking her eyes off Shego.

"Okay, managed to get a fix on Drakken and Shego. They were just caught on camera at a drive thru in Tampa Bay."

"A drive thru?" Kim looked down at Wade. "You sure?"

"Well, considering that a limo pulled up to the window, got the food and then blasted it with a burst of bioplasmic energy, I seriously doubt there's many more people who'd fit the profile."

"Definitely Shego. " Kim said, looking back up.

"They put ketchup on my burger. I HATE ketchup." Shego said quietly.

"What?" Wade said. "Kim? Is somebody else there?"

"It's just the TV. Looks like it was a false alarm. Thanks anyway, Wade."

"Sure thing, Kim," Wade said, suspicion in his voice. "Give me a call if you need anything."

"Bye Wade." Kim clicked off and looked at Shego.

"Rude much?" Shego said, grinning.

"How?" Kim asked.

"Time travel," Shego replied. "I came here from about a year and a half from now. And for most of that year and a half, the Earth has been a radioactive cinder, thanks to an extremely jumpy world being too damn quick on the button."

"So, assuming I buy all this and it isn't some sort of scam you and Drakken cooked up, how did you survive?" Kim asked.

Shego held up a hand and activated her energy field. "Turns out in addition to this, I absorb radiation like a sponge and turn it into bioplasma. Who knew?"

"Uh-huh. And I'm supposed to assume that Middleton is where the first nuke hits? Not likely. We're nowhere near anything anyone would consider a viable target."

"No, Middleton isn't a target. But it IS the staging point for the end of the world."

"Again, I ask, how?" Kim asked.

"The day after tomorrow, four major supervillains are going to enact plans here in Middleton against you and Stoppable."

"Who are we talking about, exactly?"

Shego counted off on her fingers. "Drakken and me, Killigan, Monkey Fist, and Old Man Senior and his kid. "

Kim's eyes widened. "How in the hell did all of you manage to work together without killing each other?"

Shego let out a rueful laugh. "That's just it. We didn't….aren't. We're talking four separate plans that just happen to occur more or less at the same time on the same day. And which, through a series of collosal blunders that we all should have seen coming once we knew we were all on the scene, will result in the death of nearly everything on the planet except for me, sixteen cockroaches, and Keith Richards."

"So how did you get here…er…now?"

"Found a ruined government research lab where they were working on time travel. Took the notes and spent ten months travelling around getting the parts together to make the damn thing work." Shego said. She reached into a pouch on her belt and placed a black box with glowing green lights and a control pad on the table. "You do not want to know how much of a bitch this was to put together." She flared up her fist again. "And you definitely do not want to try to take it from me, capisce?"

Kim held up her hands. "Time travel's not my bag. Besides, crazy as it sounds, I'm starting to believe you. So let me make sure I have this straight, six of my enemies are going to show up here in the next two days and try to take out me and Ron. Each has their own plans, but they aren't working together, and somehow, things get so screwed up that it results in all out nuclear war?"

"Almost," Shego said. "None of them are planning to use anything involving nukes."

Kim winced. "Major brain pain. Tell you what, how about we ditch the twenty questions routine and just let you tell me what happened…er…is going to happen?"

Shego got up and went back to the counter.

"What are you doing?" Kim asked.

"Making another sandwich. Call me crazy, but it's been too damn long since I ate real food. I want to make the most of it while I still can." Shego replied, "You might want something to snack on, too. This is gonna take a while."


	4. What Happened

**Chapter 3: What Happened**

"Okay," Shego said, looking down at the map of Middleton Kim had grabbed from her room and spread out on the kitchen table. "Now, keep in mind that a lot of what I'm going to tell you may only be about 80 percent accurate at best. I wasn't there with the others except when things started getting really out of hand. Most of it is stuff I managed to get after tracking down the two or three of them that lived for the week or so after the initial nuke went off. The rest I had to piece together in the ruins of civilization."

Kim frowned. "A week or so?"

Shego looked up. "That was about how long the politicians managed to keep things from going to hell before the Middle East, China, and North Korea decided to get into the act. Not to mention the homegrown crazies here in the good ol' US of A."

"That's…really depressing."

"That's the world you live in, Princess. Of course, if it depresses you that much, I could just time travel the hell somewhen else and you could just let it happen."

Kim looked at her. "You know I'm not going to do that."

"I know," Shego replied. "It's one of the things I hate about you. Anyway, the point is, when this all happens, it may not happen exactly the way I tell you. All I can tell you is that, to the best of my knowledge, this is what happened. And anything involving me and Drakken is at least 97 accurate."

"Because you and he aren't joined at the hip." Kim nodded. "And I'm sure that in order for him to contribute to this megadrama, he had to have been out of your range, right?"

"Right. God, I'd almost forgotten how annoying it is when you're right."

"Anyway," Kim said. "How is all of this..er..going to have happened?"

"I know, the grammar gives me a migraine too. Okay," Shego pointed to an industrial park on the outskirts of Middleton. "By this time tomorrow, Drakken and I will be at this warehouse, knee deep in…"

---

"…elephant shit." Shego said. "I cannot tell you how many more things there are that I could be doing now, rather than trying to keep elephant shit off my boots."

"A temporary inconvenience, my dear Shego." Drakken said, as he rummaged around in the storage unit of the hovercar. "Once Kim Possible is eliminated, there'll be nothing that can stand in our way. Are those hip waders from the Loch Ness project still in here?"

"You had me throw them out to make room for the Magma Drill." Shego replied. Penned up on the far side of the warehouse were Drakken's fifteen extremely large, extremely muscular, and extremely chromed battle elephants. Shego held her breath and walked over to them, looking at the glue gun Drakken was planning to have her use on Kim Possible.

"This is NEVER going to work," she said to herself. "Never in a million years."

Behind her, Drakken continued working his way through the storage unit., muttering to himself as well. "Hmm…overshoes…overshoes…I know we had overshoes in here last week. What's this?" He pulled out a small remote control with one large red button marked "Spoilsport" and a silver toggle switch.

His eyes widened and he looked back at Shego, who was still looking at the elephants in disbelief, then back at the remote. _I forgot that I had this. Good thing that safety switch is there. Who knows how many times that button's been pressed while rattling around back here. Still, it doesn't hurt to have an insurance policy just in case this doesn't work._

Drakken pocketed the remote, careful not to snag the safety switch on his coat, then went back to rummaging in the storage unit..

---

"And here are the keys to your room, Mr. Senior," said the desk clerk at the Upperton Arms. "Your bags are already there and unpacked."

"Thank you so much," Senor Senior, Sr. said . "Come Junior."

As father and son rode the elevator to the penthouse, Junior sighed. "Father, how exactly do you plan to use a hypnosis ray to eliminate Kim Possible?"

"Eliminate?" Senior said, quirking an eyebrow. "Junior, a true villain is only as good as the heroes he fights. I would no sooner truly eliminate Kim Possible than I would eliminate you, my son."

"Then, why have we wasted so much time in the past placing her and Ron Stoppable in death traps?"

"Tradition!" Senior ranted. "It is EXPECTED, Junior. I also always expect Kim Possible to escape. It is all part of the game!"

"All right, all right," Junior said. "I am sorry I brought it up."

The elevator doors opened and the Seniors went down the hall to their penthouse.

"To answer your question, my son. Rather than eliminating Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable with the Orbital Hypno Ray, we will instead take control of those who spend the largest amount of time around them and THEY will attempt to remove them from consideration."

"Their families?" Junior asked.

Senior grinned as he opened the door to the penthouse. "Too few, Junior. We will be targeting their classmates. This will require research, so first thing tomorrow morning, we will be going undercover at Middleton High School."

"Ah, you wish to use the entire student body "

Senior grinned. "Exactly, my son. Even if they manage to escape, it should buy us enough time to take control of the rest of Middleton. And from there, the world."

Junor looked in a nearby mirror and adjusted his hair. "Is the room service any good in this hotel?"

Senior sighed and put a hand over his face.

----

The trenchcoat and fedora clad figure broke the lock on the front doors of the abandoned Lowerton Zoo primate house with a well placed chop of the hand and knuckled his way inside. Once he re-secured the door, Monkey Fist discarded the hat and coat and jumped to a perch on one of the fake trees in the displays.

"Yes, this will do nicely." He said. He pulled out the Scepter of Mandrilla and examined the pictographs inscribed around the handle. _Hmmm. So the Scepter can be used only for one day every week from dawn until sundown. A bit restrictive, but if I come up with a decent strategy, it should be relatively easy to conquer the planet._

He reclined on the artificial limb and began to mull over his plan in his mind. First off would be to eliminate Kim Possible and the pretender. And to do that, he would need to strike where they didn't expect an attack to come.

He retrieved his hat and coat and left the primate house in search of a map of Middleton. He needed to locate the high school.

----

"Here is your…ugh…haggis, Mr. MacTavish." The waiter at the Upperton Country Club said, placing the native Scottish dish in front of the club guest, trying not to grimace too badly at the smell.

Disguised in a well tailored tuxedo and sunglasses, Duff Killigan inhaled the aroma deeply. "Ah, ye've made an auld Scottish man happy, lad." He held up his wineglass. "If ye could bring us a wee dram of port, I'd be grateful."

"Certainly, sir." The waiter took the glass and quickly left the table, hoping he could reach the kitchen restroom before he lost his lunch.

As Killigan munched on the revolting collection of entrails that comprised haggis, he went over his plan in his mind.

_The alligator's in the lake on the 17th, nothing major planned for the course tomorrow. Seems like it should be a good day to take out the lass and her laddie. Hmm, let's see now, how do the schools work over here?_

The waiter reappeared, looking a bit paler, and placed the full wineglass on the table. "Your port, sir."

"Thank ye, lad." Killigan said, "I wonder if ye could answer a question. I just got into town today from Glasgow, and I'm a bit jet lagged. Could ye tell me what tomorrow is?"

"Monday, sir." The waiter answered.

"Ah, so it is. Thank ye, lad, thank ye." Killigan replied.

"Thank you, sir." The waiter left the table, leaving Killigan alone with his thoughts.

Killigan sipped the port and smiled. _Aye, Monday. The teenager's most dreaded day of the week. And the young lassie's aboot to have the worst Monday of her life._

---

"Monday?" Kim asked, interrupting Shego. "All this is going to happen on Monday?"

"Yeah, today's Saturday. I said the end of the world was coming the day after tomorrow." Shego answered. "Logically, that would be Monday."

"No, that's not what I mean." Kim said. "If they're all going to attack on Monday, but be in town Sunday night, why don't I just take them all out then?"

"You could," Shego agreed, "But I doubt you want to run the risk of screwing up causality any more than we're already planning."

"What do you mean?"

"Before I came here I tried to fix this problem myself. It didn't work out. So I figure, if I get you to do it, since you're part of this piece of the timeline, and if you hold off until things actually get started, it might minimize the ripple effect and get us the result we want."

Kim frowned. "So you want me to wait until Middleton's under attack?"

"Look, while I've been playing around with this thing," Shego said patting the pouch with the time travel device in it. "I've figured out that changing history is risky. And if you want to change a specific effect, you have to get a close to the cause as possible. Otherwise, the next thing you know, you're in a future where cheese is outlawed, blue is the mandatory skin tone, and you happen to be dead."

"Um…" Kim said.

"I told you it didn't work out." Shego replied. "Now, do you want to know how the rest of this happened, or should I just let you cling to your usual delusions of grandeur?"

Kim gave Shego a look. "Go on."

----

Monday morning dawned clear and bright over Middleton High School, much to the chagrin of most of it's student body. As the students filed through the halls, many took no notice of the two new members of the janitorial staff.

"Aw, Father," Junior whined. "Why do we have to wear these coveralls? They do nothing to show off my physique."

"Patience, my son," Senior replied, pulling out a remote control equipped with a video display, dial, and activation switch.. "Once the majority of the student body attends the pep rally later this morning, we will activate the Orbital Hypno Ray, and then, Kim Possible will be kept sufficiently busy and we will be sure that it will work on a large scale. And then—"

"I know, I know," Junior said bored, "We will rule the world."

"Exactly." Senior replied. "Now, if I recall correctly, the boy's room on the second floor has a tricky plumbing problem in third stall. Come, Junior."

----

On the roof of the school, Monkey Fist crouched, the Scepter of Mandrilla tucked into his belt. He looked down at the display sign at the front of the school: "Pep Rally Today 11:30 AM."

"Pep rally, eh?" he said to himself. "Well, if the TriCity School Board doesn't mind, I'd like to propose a new school mascot today." He grinned and patted the scepter tucked into his belt.

----

"Shego!" Drakken said into the walkie talkie. "Are you in position?"

Shego rolled her eyes and picked up her own walkie talkie from the console of the hover car. "Yes, I'm above the high school. Why am I above the high school again?"

"Because," Drakken said from his potion next to a large livestock semi about three blocks from the school. "Once the pep rally is underway, I will unleash the elephants and send them in your direction. The distraction should be enough to get Kim Possible's attention and from there you can get her and the buffoon just as the herd arrives at the school."

"Riiiight." Shego said, "Can do." She picked up a pair of binoculars and looked down at the school. She frowned and leaned forward. "What the hell?"

"What? What is it?" Drakken said.

"Monty. He's on the roof." Shego answered.

"Monty? Monkey Fist, that primate fetishist? He's here too!" Drakken yelped. "What's he doing?"

"Lurking, from the looks of things." Shego answered. "Wait, he's going to the roof access. He's inside."

"Well, what does he want here?"

"Three guesses." Shego said, looking around the perimeter of the school. She hit a button on the top of the binoculars and zoomed in on two figures she saw heading towards the football field.

"Probably the same thing we're doing."

"Ya think?" Shego said absently as the view in the binoculars came into focus. "Whoa whoa whoa, hold up. He's not the only one."

"What! Who ELSE is here?"

Shego took the binoculars away from her eyes, perplexity etched on her face. "Old Man Senior and his kid."

"That pompous geezer and his brat? What do THEY want?"

"I don't know," Shego said, frowning. "But I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this. Maybe we should just call this whole thing off."

"No!" Drakken replied. "We've come too far. Keep an eye on them for now. We'll go ahead as planned and make sure they aren't going to interfere."

"All right," Shego said, "But I'm telling you, the way things are going, it wouldn't surprise me if Killigan or somebody was enacting some other lame brained scheme around here."

----

"Right, Ted, so I'll have Betty fax those forms over to you this afternoon and we can close the account." The obnoxious businessman with the equally obnoxious golf pants said as he teed up for the 17th hole at the Upperton Country Club. Behind him the rest of his foursome made some dirty looks his direction, wishing he would hang up his cell phone and tee off.

"Yeah, yeah yeah…I know it's a pain but there's not a hell of a lot I can do." The businessman laughed "Yeah! Don't tell that one around the office, Ted, you never know who may be listening. Look, I'm on the 17th and I need to tee off, so I'll give Betty a call and get her to fax it over. Right. Right back atcha, Ted. See ya."

He hung up and clipped the phone to his belt, then took the driver and positioned his stance, brought the club up…and his cell phone rang, eliciting a groan from the rest of the foursome.

The businessman with the obnoxious pants grabbed the phone and clicked it on. "Hello?"

No sooner had he done so than he was knocked over the horizon by the tail of Killigan's giant mechanical alligator.

"No cell phones on the course, ye great stupid man! And get some better pants!" Killigan cried as he elevated the alligator onto it's hind legs and headed towards the high school.

----

The pep rally was in full swing. The students cheered and clapped as Kim Possible and the Middleton High cheerleading squad went through their routine. On the sidelines, Ron, in his guise as the Middleton Mad Dog cavorted and foamed.

Meanwhile up in the rafters, Monkey Fist grinned to himself and pulled out the Scepter of Mandrilla. Once the cheerleader had ascended to her usual place at the top of the human pyramid, she was going to meet the mother of all monkeys.

Unnoticed by the monkey ninja master, a small camera, one of twenty placed throughout the gym, broadcast his movements back to the remote control Senor Senior, Sr. held in his hand.

"Hmmm." Senior mused as he saw the simian intruder reposition himself in the rafters. "Junior, it seems we have some unexpected guests here today."

"Yes, I know, Father, Miss Shego is here." Junior said, pointing to where the hovercar was floating above the school.

"What!" Senior's eyebrows shot up and he looked upwards. He pulled out his own pair of binoculars and saw a familiar green-and-black clad evil sidekick. He frowned deeply, then his brow relaxed as an idea occurred to him.

"Change of plans, Junior. " Senior said, adjusting the dial on the Hypno Ray to the "Single Target" setting. "If we have party crashers, well, we had better make sure they say hello to the guests of honor."

----

Shego pulled the binoculars from her face and grabbed the walkie talkie. "Dr. D, we have a problem. The Seniors just spotted me."

"Damn!" Drakken cursed. "All right, forget the subtlety. Be ready with the glue gun, Shego, I'm letting the elephants loose now!"

Drakken jumped out of the cab of the semi, and dashed to the rear of the truck. He grabbed the release lever and yanked. The handle didn't budge.

"Oh for crying out loud!" Drakken braced with one foot and yanked again. "Come on you stupid...lousy…gah!" He slipped and landed flat on his back. He titled his head back. "Some days I wonder if it's worth…the…has…sle?"

He trailed off and his eyes widened as he saw an upside down giant robot alligator rampaging up the street towards him. He grabbed the walkie talkie. "Shego? Look back this direction and tell me if you see what I see."

"If you're seeing a giant robotic alligator heading towards the high school with a deranged golfer at the controls, then the answer is yes." came Shego's reply. "Dr. D? I really think we should call this off. No offense, but this has the makings of a major shitstorm coming our way."

"No! We will not call this off!" Drakken snarled getting to his feet. "If these second rate, second string, overinflated, Guild rejected nimrods with pudding for brains want to throw down and try to get to Kim Possible before we do, then I say BRING! IT! ON!"

Drakken jumped to his feet, wrenched the lever, threw open the doors, and hit the switch inside that electrified the floor and sent the genetically engineered, cybernetically enhanced battle elephants stampeding down the street behind the giant robot alligator.

----

The cheerleading squad finished up their routine and topped it off with Kim Possible performing an impressive quintuple somersault in mid air with a half twist and finishing with a perfect split. The students went nuts, screaming and cheering at the top of their lungs.

Kim smiled and got to her feet, waving to the crowd. On the sidelines, Ron, still wearing the Mad Dog head, pumped his fist into the air, barking loudly. The cheerleading squad joined Kim in the waving and basked in the adulation.

"KIM POSSIBLE!" came a cultured British accented voice. Monkey Fist dropped out of the rafters, wielding the Scepter. Kim instinctively went into a battle stance. Ron dashed beside her, trying to extricate himself form the mascot head.

"Monkey Fist," Kim snarled. "You have a lot of nerve coming here."

"Oh, but I just got a new toy and I just couldn't wait to share it with you and the imbecile over there." Monkey Fist grinned.

Ron finally got the mascot head off and tossed it aside. "Hey! Big talk coming from a monkey based freak like you!"

Monkey Fist raised the Scepter of Mandrilla. "That may be, but now, you both will tremble at the ultimate manifestation of Mystical Monkey Power! BEHOLD!"

Monkey Fist raised the Scepter and touched a pictograph on the handle. The sunlight bounced of the crystal monkey head and refracted back and forth until a blazing silver light shot from the head and filled the gymnasium. The students screamed again as the light swirled and coalesced into the hunched form of a giant silver orangutan that nearly filled the building.

"That is one big monkey." Ron said, trying hard not to faint.

"And now, Kim Possible," Monkey Fist said, "you and the pretender over there will feel the wrath of O-oook!"

The giant orangutan roared, beat its chest and stood up, shattering the ceiling of the gym and roaring again.

"Oh boy," Kim said, wondering how the hell she was going to deal with this.

----

"WHOAAAAA!" Shego cried as the top of O-oook's head hit the hover car and sent it flying. She gripped the controls and wrenched them until the hovercar righted itself.

"Shego, come in, are you all right?" Drakken's voice came from the walkie talkie. Shego grabbed the device and clicked the talk button.

"Fine, aside from getting hit by a forty foot ape that just burst through a high school gym." She answered.

"Good," Drakken said, "Come pick me up. We have to go to plan B."

"Plan B? What happened to the elephants?"

"Um, well, they got one look at the forty foot ape and hightailed it out of town."

Shego rolled her eyes. "And Plan B?"

"We're going to get these other idiots to back off. We'll deal with Kim Possible later."

----

Meanwhile, the Seniors had returned to the gymnasium as soon as the simian sorcerer erupted through the roof.

"That is a very big monkey." Junior said, as Senior scanned the remaining working cameras in the gym. On the small screen, Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable were leaping across the arms and shoulders of the giant ape.

"Indeed," Senior said. She flipped the channel again and found what he wanted. Monkey Fist. Senior grinned. "Yes, this should do nicely." He adjusted the dial on the remote once again and hit the button. In geosynchronous orbit, a satellite altered it's targeting grid, rotated it's laser cannon, and send out a beam of orange light towards it's target.

Outside the gym, Duff Killigan stared at the mystical behemoth. "Well, now. That's something ye dinna see everyday. Ah well, it changes nothin'."

Killigan flipped a switch. On the shoulders of the alligator, several panels opened, and a battery of cannons emerged. Duff grinned and hit the red button in front of him. The cannons warmed up and fired a barrage of exploding golf balls at the high school. Several hit the giant silver ape and exploded, causing it to scream in rage and pain. It smashed the gym even further, sending debris flying. It turned to face the alligator and made a move towards it.

Down in the ruins of the gym, Monkey Fist raised the scepter. "No! Forget that!"

The scepter glowed silver and the orangutan turned back to face Monkey Fist. "I command you to ignore anything else except to—"

Monkey Fist was abruptly cut off as the orange light from Senior's satellite came down and hit him, enveloping him in a bright orange glow. His pupils dilated

Senior grinned, and spoke into the remote. "Now, Lord Monkey Fist, repeat after me. Great O-oook…"

"Great O-oook…" Monkey Fist repeated in a dazed voice.

"I command you to attack—" Senior said, before being cut off by Junior's yelp of panic.

"Father! Look out! It is the giant alligator!"

"The giant alligator?" Senior repeated, turning around. His eyes widened as a barrage of golf balls came towards him. Junior tackled him to the ground, causing the remote to fly from Senior's hand where it was promptly destroyed by one of the exploding golf balls.

"Oh no." Senior said, realizing how his last command was going to be interpreted.

----

"…I command you to attack the giant alligator?" Monkey Fist said, dazed. The simian sorcerer roared and turned to face the robotic monstrosity. O-oook howled, pounded his chest, then leaped out of the gym and crashed into the alligator, sending both to the ground.

As the giant ape and alligator wrestled, Kim and Ron jumped form the ape's shoulders and landed outside the gym.

"How do we stop something twelve times bigger than we are?" Kim said.

Ron opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. "Never mind, I got nothin'." Then a thought occurred to him. "Wait! What about that staff thingy that Monkey Fist has? It seems to control the giant monkey. Smash the staff…"

"…get rid of the ape." Kim finished. She grabbed Ron and gave him a quick kiss. "Ron, you're brilliant. Let's go."

Back in the gym, Monkey Fist shook his head and looked out at where the two giant monsters were fighting. "Oh, brilliant." He rolled his eyes and raised the staff. "O-ook! I command you!"

"Oh no, you don't!" came a voice from behind him. Monkey Fist turned and was greeted with Kim Possible's size 5 foot to his face. He went sailing through the air, losing his grip on the Scepter. As he crashed to the ground, Kim did a hand spring and caught the Scepter in midair.

"Time to say goodbye to your glandular freak pet, Monkey Fist!" she said, raiding the Scepter high before bringing it crashing down to the ground.

"NO!" Monkey Fist cried, as the crystal mandrill head shattered into hundreds of pieces. A silver mist escaped from the fragments then dissipated.

Sadly, however, O-oook did not.

Kim and Ron looked up at the giant ape.

"Um…that should have worked." Ron said. Monkey Fist got to his feet and snatched the useless scepter from Kim.

"Brilliant, cheerleader!" he snarled, "Now NOBODY can control him!"

"You mean, breaking the staff doesn't make him go away?" Kim asked.

"No, he only goes away at sunset!" Monkey Fist answered. "And once he's destroyed Killigan's stupid little toy, he'll continue to destroy whatever he feels like it until sundown."

"Oh boy." Kim said. "Any thing we can do?"

"I suggest you kiss your quiet little corner of suburbia goodbye." Monkey Fist replied.

Outside, Killigan pressed another button on the controls in front of him.

"Take this, ye damned dirrrty ape!"

Another panel opened in the alligator's chest and there was a huge explosion, sending the ape flying back into the main school building. O-oook groaned but didn't get up again. The robotic alligator on the other hand did and stood over Kim, Ron and Monkey Fist.

"And now, lassie, time for you to get more o' the same!" Killigan gloated. The cannons began to power up.

Suddenly, a screech of feedback was heard as a loudspeaker came to life. Everyone looked to the source of the sound. Killigan killing the cannons, as he did so.

"Attention other supervillains in the Middleton area, this is Dr. Drakken speaking!" Everyone looked up to see Drakken standing in the hovercar, a CB style microphone in his hand, Shego at the controls.

"Oh great, Drakken too?" Kim groaned, rubbing the bridge of her nose.

"Y'know," Ron said, looking at Monkey Fist. "There's a little thing called scheduling you bad guys need to look into. It would really cut down on embarrassments like this."

Drakken continued. "You will cease and desist all actions against Kim Possible until such time as we can work out the best way to work our schemes in a harmonious manner."

"You cannot be serious, Drakken!" Monkey Fist yelled. Behind him, the Seniors appeared on the scene.

"Indeed!" Senior shouted. "We have invested a considerable amount of time and money into this project!"

"Boo hoo hoo." Drakken said. "Look, right now, all we're doing is getting in each other's way. I say we call this off and regroup."

"Easy for you to say, blue boy." Killigan said, turning the giant alligator towards the hover car. "But, ye'll forgive me if I point out that I'm the only one here who hasn't lost their gadgetry."

"Oooh, a giant mechanical reptile." Drakken sneered. "And while that would normally be intimidating as all get out, I'm afraid THIS trumps your little toy, Killigan." Drakken brandished the remote he had recovered earlier.

"A remote?" Kim asked. "Oh, that's intimidating."

"Oh, it is indeed," Drakken gloated. He flipped the toggle switch and the red button lined up. "Considering this remote can activate a small nuclear device which is currently pointed right…here."

The collective gasp could be heard all the way to Upperton.

"Wait a damn minute," Shego said, looking at Drakken. "You have a NUKE!"

Drakken clicked off the mic. "It's only a small one. Only three megatons. Nothing exciting. Relax, Shego, I'm not actually going to use it. It's a bluff."

"He must be bluffing." Senior said. "He can't be that deranged!"

"Oh, you have no idea." Monkey Fist replied.

Kim frowned. _Nukes, huh? Not on MY watch, Drakken!_

Before anyone could react, Kim leaped into the air, landed on the tail of Killigan's alligator and dashed up the tail, then sprung across to one of the forelegs, spun around it like a gymnast on the parallel bars, and flipped up into the air, bounced off the snout of the gator and into the hovercar.

"Hand over the remote, Drakken!" she demanded.

"Not a chance, Possible!" Drakken snarled. "Shego! Dispose of our unwanted guest!"

"Finally, some action!" Shego jumped from her seat and crashed into Kim, sending the two of them to the floor of the hover car. Drakken grabbed the controls and sent the hovercar away from the alligator. Shego's hands flared up and she clawed at Kim. Kim thrust a foot into Shego's stomach and flipped her up into the air. Shego corrected herself, and landed on the back of the hovercar, taking another swipe at Kim.

As the two of them fought, Drakken tried to keep the hover car level, acutely aware of the fact that the safety switch was still in the off position. Shego managed to get a lucky kick in, causing Kim to crash into Drakken, who in turned leaned on the control stick. The hovercar fell into a dive. Shego lost her balance and fell, clawing into the back of the hovercar with one hand.

Drakken shoved Kim back and pulled on the control stick. The hovercar pulled out of the dive and leveled off.

"Give me the remote, Drakken! This is nuts, even for you!" Kim demanded.

"At least turn the god damn safety back on!" Shego cried from the rear of the hovercar. Drakken looked at both of them and blinked.

"Right. Right. What the hell am I doing?" He held up the remote. "I'll just flip this switch and then it'll be—"

"GRRRAAAAAAAWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOK!" O-oook roared as it awoke and took a swipe at the floating hovercar. The vehicle spun end over end, causing Kim,. Drakken, and Shego to hold on to avoid falling out.

As the spinning stopped, Drakken's grip on the remote slipped. The remote bounced off the console and fell towards the seat. Both he and Kim dove for it, but collided heads midway. The remote hit Kim's fingertips, and flew back towards Shego.

"Shego, catch it!" Shego sunk her claws back into the hovercar and twisted her wrist, trying to get momentum to catch the remote in time.

Her eyes widened as the remote slipped just past her fingertips, and landed on the floor of the hovercar. The button being pressed under the weight of the rest of the remote.

"Spoilsport Device activated. Three minutes to arrival at target." came a modulated voice form the hover car's control panel.

Drakken, Kim, and Shego looked at each other, then down at the giant silver orangutan ducking it out with the robot alligator. The people of Middleton ran screaming down the streets.

And in the distance, they could make out a jet trail racing towards them.

----

"Three minutes later, Drakken's nuke will hit Middleton and wipe out the TriCity area." Shego said quietly. "Several terrorist groups will take credit and get inspired to attack the United States and several other countries. The politicians will get into the act, and things will flare up even more until the President decides to retaliate against who he THINKS is responsible for the destruction of Middleton."

"The Middle East." Kim said.

Shego nodded. "And after that, North Korea and China will invoke the good old Mutual Assured Destruction clause. And three days later, I'll wake up in the ruins of the TriCity Museum, wondering why I'm not so much radioactive dust. And that, Kimmie, is the way that the world ends."

The two sat in silence for a moment.

"So," Kim said, "The key to this whole thing is Drakken's remote. I get the remote from Drakken and the nuke can't be triggered."

"Exactly," Shego said. "But you know it won't be that easy. He's going to sic me on you, and the me from this here and now doesn't know any of this."

Kim nodded. "What if I get the remote before Drakken finds it in the hovercar?"

"No good," Shego said. "Too risky. You could do that, and while it might work, there's also the possibility that it'll end up in the hands of one of the others and still get triggered. That's one of the other things I've discovered. Once something happens, it tends to want to stay happened. So if the remote got triggered once, it could get triggered again."

"Gotcha. So, get the remote but not too soon, otherwise it could still get triggered by accident."

"You got it." Shego said. "As long as you wait to grab it until just before all hell breaks loose at the pep rally, you should be able to take Drakken down and get the remote without screwing up the timeline too badly."

"Right." Kim said idly. Shego frowned.

"Don't even think of pulling one over on me, Possible." Shego said. "I'm not kidding. You try to fix this too damn soon and you won't like the result. I promise you that."

"All right, all right," Kim said. "I promise I won't do anything until Monday morning all right?"

"Good." Shego said. She reached into her hip pouch and pulled out her time travel device. "I have to go. Thanks for the shower and the grub."

"Um, Shego?" Kim said. Shego looked up.

"What?"

"If this works, what will happen to you?" Kim asked. "I mean if I do prevent this from happening, the you that's here won't exist anymore, right?"

"Probably." Shego said. "I'll occupy a redundant timeline. I guess that means that once it's no longer valid, I'll just fade out of existence."

"Um..I'm sorry about that." Kim said. "Really. I am."

"You're too damn nice, Possible. That's the other thing I hate about you." Shego said. "Don't worry about me. Save the world. It's about the only thing you're good at." She pressed a few buttons on the device and a glowing green portal opened before her. Shego turned back to Kim.

"I'm serious, Kimmie, wait until Monday. If I get back to my time and it's still a radioactive wasteland, I'm going to hunt you down and kick your ass, understand?"

"So not the drama, Shego." Kim replied. "I've got it covered."

Shego rolled her eyes. "Oy, the slang. Ditch it, will you?"

With that, Shego disappeared into the portal, which winked out of existence a few seconds later, leaving Kim alone in the house. She looked at the map and the notes she had made while Shego outlined what was going to happen. She frowned.

_If Shego thinks I'm going to stand by and wait for four supervillains to enact their whacked plans in MY town, she's out of her mind. _

_Tomorrow night, Drakken's little remote is history._


	5. Cassandra's Tears

**Chapter 4: Cassandra's Tears**

"So let me get this straight," Ron said, looking at the marked up map Kim had brought to Bueno Nacho Sunday afternoon. "Shego shows up at your house, claiming she's from the future and that tomorrow morning, Drakken, Monkey Fist and a whole bunch of other bad guys are going to attack the school trying to get to us, and it's all going to result in World War III?"

"In a nutshell," Kim answered.

"And you believed her? I mean, come on, Kim. It's SHEGO! She could be trying to play you."

"That's what I thought, but the video footage Wade found was pretty compelling. I had him send it to me after she left. Plus the time travel gadget she had looked like the real thing to me." Kim said, "Not only that, I had Wade do some searches in the reservation files of a couple of Upperton's swankier hotels. Both the Seniors and 'Angus MacTavish' were scheduled to check in today."

"All right," Ron said. "So, assuming this isn't some sort of scam, why believe her as far as the nukes go, but not enough to wait until tomorrow to do anything about it?"

"Even if waiting would stop Drakken from triggering his nuke, there's still the giant magic orangutan, the Hypno-Ray, and the robot alligator to deal with." Kim replied.

"Okay," Ron said, "But how are we gonna deal with all of this? Four big orders to fill and not a lot of time to do it."

"Already on it, " Kim answered. "I had Wade call in a couple of favors from Global Justice. I tipped them off to Killigan and the Seniors. I think they're going to find their stays at the Upperton Arms and the Upperton Hyatt Regency tragically cut short." She gave Ron a mischievous grin.

"Oh, you are EVIL. Evil, I tell you!" Ron said, grinning. "So what about Monkey Fist and Drakken?"

"If what Shego told me is anywhere near as accurate as she claimed, those two are the ones with the actual threats. Shattering the Scepter of Mandrilla isn't going to make the giant orangutan go away. So what we need to do is get the scepter before Monkey Fist can use it. THAT is going to have to wait until tomorrow during the pep rally."

"Why tomorrow, if he's going to be at the zoo in Lowerton?"

"Because Shego didn't know exactly when he arrived there. And to be honest, she didn't sound entirely sure if that was his hideout. He didn't make it out of Middleton in time. But she does know that he will be at the gym right before the pep rally. We'll be waiting for him there and get the scepter before he can use it."

"Okay, so why did you want to eat now?" Ron said, taking a bite of his naco.

"We're eating now, because tonight, we're going to pay Drakken and Shego a little visit and get that remote. " Kim said.

"Booyah! Taking down the nuke happy mad man. I'm all up for that!"

"Booyah!" Rufus echoed.

Kim grinned and looked at her watch. "Okay, in about two hours Shego and Drakken should be at the warehouse and Shego will be complaining about the…"

----

"…elephant shit." Shego said. "I cannot tell you how many more things there are that I could be doing now, rather than trying to keep elephant shit off my boots."

"A temporary inconvenience, my dear Shego." Drakken said, as he rummaged around in the storage unit of the hovercar. "Once Kim Possible is eliminated, there'll be nothing that can stand in our way. Are those hip waders from the Loch Ness project still in here?"

"You had me throw them out to make room for the Magma Drill." Shego replied. Penned up on the far side of the warehouse were Drakken's fifteen extremely large, extremely muscular, and extremely chromed battle elephants. Shego held her breath and walked over to them, looking at the glue gun Drakken was planning to have her use on Kim Possible.

"This is NEVER going to work," she said to herself. "Never in a million years."

Behind her, Drakken continued working his way through the storage unit., muttering to himself as well. "Hmm…overshoes…overshoes…I know we had overshoes in here last week. What's this?" He pulled out a small remote control with one large red button marked "Spoilsport" and a silver toggle switch.

His eyes widened and he looked back at Shego, who was still looking at the elephants in disbelief, then back at the remote. _I forgot that I had this. Good thing that safety switch is there. Who knows how many times that button's been pressed while rattling around back here. Still, it doesn't hurt to have an insurance policy just in case this doesn't work. _

Drakken pocketed the remote, careful not to snag the safety switch on his coat, then went back to rummaging in the storage unit.

Shego left the elephants and went to the other side of the warehouse, where Drakken had set up a small entertainment center. She flopped into one of the chairs and clicked on the TV. It wasn't like anything was going to happen until tomorrow anyway.

---

On the roof of the warehouse, Kim and Ron peered through the skylight, watching Drakken ransack the hovercar and Shego watching TV. Kim frowned as she saw Drakken pocket the remote.

"There it is," she said. She looked at Ron. "We need that remote. That's the priority. Even if they get away, they do not get away with that remote."

Ron nodded. "Gotcha, KP. They won't make it to the door. So, smash or stealth?"

Kim considered for a moment. "Stealth, for as long as we can. We don't want to give Drakken any ideas about holding us off with the nuke."

"Sleep." Rufus said, popping out of Ron's pocket. The two teen heroes looked at the rodent.

"Hey, good one, Rufus." Ron said. "They gotta sleep sometime, right? We sneak in, grab the remote, sneak out, and surprise them in the morning at the pep rally."

"Sounds good." Kim said. She shifted position and the two of them settled in to wait.

----

Three hours later, Kim leaned back over the skylight to take a look inside. Shego had curled up on an air mattress near the TV, while Drakken was passed out and splayed in one of the chairs, looking like he was snoring heavily.

"Ron," Kim whispered. She looked to her side, where Ron and Rufus has passed out. She lightly hit Ron on the shoulder. "Ron! Wake up!"

"But I don't wanna wear the tap shoes," Ron murmured. "They clash with the lederhosen."

"Would you wake up?" Kim whispered harshly. Ron blinked and sat up.

"Sorry, dozed off for a sec."

"Ya think?" Kim said. She reached into her hip pouch and pulled out her grappling gun. She hooked the grapple to the edge of the skylight. "I picked the lock a little while ago."

Ron nodded and hooked his own grapple next to Kim's. The two of them lifted the skylight open, braced it, and slid into the building, slowly letting out the lines from the guns as they did so.

They landed softly on the floor and left the grapple guns hanging, in case they needed a quick escape. Kim put a finger to her lips and motioned for Ron to come closer.

"Go to the door, keep an eye out," she whispered, "Shego said it was just the two of them, but you never know."

"I'm on it." Ron said, and began sneaking towards the warehouse door, giving Shego and Drakken a wide berth. Kim turned and slowly inched her way towards Drakken.

Drakken was sprawled out asleep in his chair, and was indeed snoring loudly. As Kim got closer, she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. When she turned, Shego groaned, grabbed the blanket she was using and pulled it over her head.

"…gonna clear his sinuses with a rusty spoon one of these dayszzzzzz…" Shego murmured before her breathing became regular again. Kim let out a silent sigh of relief, and turned back to Drakken.

His lab coat was open, revealing the black turtleneck he wore underneath it. Kim craned her neck and could make out the edge of the remote hanging out of the lab coat's inside pocket. She took a deep breath, held it, and slowly reached for the remote.

Across the building, Ron was approaching the warehouse door, taking large exaggerated steps. He glanced back and saw Kim freeze as Shego rolled over. He mimicked Kim's sigh when Shego fell back to sleep, then went back to heading for the door.

As he got closer, he felt a sudden shift in weight in his pocket. He looked down, then behind him. Rufus was scampering across the floor towards a large bag of peanuts that had split open near the elephant pen.

Ron clapped a hand over his mouth and gasped, before sprinting across the floor, keeping to the balls of his feet to minimize the sound. He bent low, intending to scoop up Rufus and pull a u-turn back to the door.

Instead, he tripped over his own feet and skidded face first right into the bag of peanuts, which caused other elephants to rear up and make an unholy racket. This in turn caused both Shego and Drakken to wake up.

Drakken's eyes widened as he saw a familiar teenage face in front of him "Kim Possible!"

"Collecting unused remotes for the homeless!" Kim said brightly. "Oh, look, here's one."

She grabbed the remote from Drakken's pocket and flipped backwards across the floor.

"SHEGO!"

"There already!" Shego said, bouncing off the air mattress towards Kim, flaring up in midair. Drakken dashed over to the hovercar, looking for something with which to attack his adversary.

----

Meanwhile, Ron scrabbled to his feet, scattering peanuts left and right. He turned around and saw Shego engage Kim.

"KP!" Ron began running, but found he couldn't get traction on the peanuts on the floor. He spent a few seconds running absolutely nowhere.

"Oh come on, this is like a bad weekday cartoon!" he complained. He stopped running, then dashed off again, finding purchase for a brief second. Right before he stepped on Rufus. Rufus let out a screech, which Ron echoed as he fell backwards, landing on the lever that opened the gate to the elephant pen.

Ron stared up at the fifteen chromed, muscular, and heavily panicked land animals that were bearing down on him. He screamed, sprang to his feet and began running.

----

Shego slammed Kim into one of the far walls. "How the hell did you know we were here? You got your web geek watching our every move now?"

Kim smiled. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." She kicked upwards, catching Shego in the ribs and sending her sailing backwards. Shego righted herself and threw a blot of bioplasma at Kim.

Kim dove to the left and the bolt plowed into the wall, leaving scorch marks on the concrete. She leaped into the air and came crashing down on Shego, causing both to fall to the floor and roll across it.

As they did so, they became aware of heavy vibration coming from the floor. They both looked up, and saw Ron heading towards them, a charge of fear maddened battle elephants hot on his heels.

Both women's eyes widened and they split apart to get out of the way of the rampaging pachyderms. As Kim sprang away, she reached into her pocket, pulled out the remote, quickly checked to make sure the safety switch was still engaged, and threw it directly into the path of the elephants. It was caught under the trampling feet of the herd and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Kim allowed herself a grin. _So much for Armageddon._

Suddenly, she heard a sound like "BLORTCH!" and found herself covered in a sticky slimy substance. She lost control of her momentum and skidded into the wall, where she found herself stuck. She looked up and saw Drakken standing before her with his super glue gun.

----

"Stay back! Back! Nice crazed giant elephants!" Ron said as he tried to get away from the herd. He scanned the warehouse trying to find some means of escape. His vision finally lit on the hanging grapple guns. He made a minor course correction and dashed towards them.

As he got closer, he took a running jump, caught Kim's gun, thumbed the direction setting to "Retract" and pulled the trigger. His was hoisted up into the air, allowing the genetic freak elephants to pass harmlessly under him, where they continued across the warehouse, destroyed Drakken's entertainment center, and plowed through the wall of the warehouse.

Ron sighed, reached into his pocket and pulled out Rufus.

"Okay, " he said, frowning. "As of right now, you have lost your peanut privileges, mister."

"Awww." Rufus whined.

Ron looked down just in time to see Drakken turn as the battle elephants crashed through the wall. He also saw Kim stuck to the wall. He looked behind him and saw Shego get to her feet and begin walking over to where Drakken held Kim captive.

Ron looked at Rufus. "Rufus, Kimmunicator." Rufus saluted, crawled into Ron's other pocket and pulled out Ron's Kimmunicator. Ron grabbed it with his free hand and clicked it on. "Wade?"

"Hey, Ron, what's up?"

"Kim's been captured. Drakken has her stuck to the wall with that super glue gun of his. She can't move. Any suggestions?"

"Check your pack."

Rufus crawled up Ron's beg over his shoulders and into the pack. He popped out a few seconds later with a tube of chapstick.

"Chapstick?" Rufus said.

"Yeah, I'm with Rufus on this one, Wade. We're supposed to rescue Kim with chapstick?"

"LASER chapstick, Ron." Wade answered. "Or were you partial to the Raspberry Blend that Kim has?"

"Ohhhh, well, why didn't you say so? Hang on, Wade." Ron put the Kimmunicator back in his pocket, still active, and grabbed Rufus. "Okay, little guy, use it to go save Kim. I'm gonna do what I do best. Provide a distraction."

"Booyah!" Rufus said.

---

"NYAHAHAHA! It works!" Drakken bounced over to Kim to gloat. "And Shego thought it was the dumbest plan ever. This'll show her. I finally have Kim Possible at my mercy!"

As he gloated, there was a thundering crash, and Drakken turned to see the horde of battle elephants break through one of the walls. He frowned and grunted in aggravation, and turned back to Kim.

"Do you have even the slightest idea how long it took me to create those elephants!" he whined.

Kim gave him a look. "If the complaints on the Villains-R-Us message board are to be believed, it didn't take you long at all. DNAmy, on the other hand, spent ten months finding the right genetic sequence."

Drakken growled. "No matter! I may not be able to have the satisfaction of trampling you with those elephants, but at least I finally have you at my mercy! And I think someone else would really like the opportunity for some long overdue payback. Oh, Sheeeeeego."

Shego strolled up next to Drakken and grinned. "Well, Kimmie, looks like this is the end of the road." She flared her hands up. "Any last words?"

"Look out." Kim said, smiling.

"EEEEYYYYAAAAAAAGHHHHH!" Ron cried as he swung down from the rafters of the warehouse. He let go of the grappling gun and sailed through the air, tossing Rufus towards Kim.

"What! The buffoon!" Drakken screeched as Ron's momentum caused him to plow into the evil genius, sending both of them rolling across the ground. Their momentum caused them to plow into Shego, who was carried along for the ride.

Rufus flew through the air, and bounced off the wall, gripping the laser chapstick tightly. He landed next to Kim, popped the cap of the chapstick with his teeth and twisted the base of the tube. A Blue beam shot out and began eating through the mega-adhesive holding Kim prisoner. Kim kept still, not wanting to attract attention to Rufus until she was free. She watched as Drakken rolled out of the tussle and sat up, dizzy. Ron and Shego kept rolling until they collided with the air mattress.

"Come on, Rufus," Kim whispered. "I don't know how much longer she'll put up with him."

"Okay, okay." Rufus said, widening the beam and working faster. Finally, he cut through the last of the glue, allowing Kim to get to her feet.

"Nice work, Rufus," she turned towards Ron and Shego. "Now to …" She trailed off. Something was wrong. Ron stopped fighting, and Shego was looking down at him. Ron's head tilted upwards to look at Shego, then fell back to the floor.

Kim knew what had happened. She didn't need to see the details. She could feel it in her guts, which were now snaking around, sending waves of nausea through her. She fought them down and focused on the other emotion that was there. The one she always had whenever she was around Shego but rarely ever allowed to surface. The one she always kept under a tight rein. The one she had only tapped into for the slightest bit on the roof of Bueno Nacho's corporate headquarters the night of the prom.

This time, she gave it full and complete control.

---

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU SCHMUCK!" Shego snarled as she and Ron rolled across the floor, Ron Kimmunicator slipping out of his pocket and sliding across the floor. Ron tried to push off of the evil sidekick, but found one of the pouches on his utility belt had become entangled in Shego's own belt. He reached down and tried to free himself. Shego's frowned deepened.

"You have exactly until the count of three to get your damn hand away from there." She growled through clenched teeth. "THREE!"

She kicked upwards, causing Ron to yelp in pain and flip over her. Unfortunately, their belts were still stuck together, causing Shego to flip over right along with him. Both of them yelped as they came crashing back to the floor. Shego's hands, still flaring, came down and she instinctively threw them in front of her to brace herself.

She blinked when she realized she had felt her hands slide into something much softer than the concrete floor. She pulled them back, and deflared. There was blood on her gloves. Warm, red blood.

She pushed off Ron and looked down at him in shock. Eight wounds the same size as her fingers were in his chest, all of them pumping blood. Ron himself had an expression of stunned disbelief on his face. He looked up at Shego, a confused look on his face, before his eyes rolled back in his head and his neck relaxed.. The loud crack as his skull hit the concrete confirmed what she suspected.

---

Drakken shook his head, trying to clear it and looked over to where Shego and Ron were fighting. He watched with glee. He may not have conquered the world yet, but it was generally agreed he had the best sidekick money could buy. She'd show the buffoon a thing or—

Drakken blinked as the buffoon abruptly stopped struggling. He watched as Shego pulled herself off him and stared at her hands. Drakken frowned. _She didn't!_

Drakken stood up and walked over towards Shego, when he heard an unbridled scream of rage and anguish behind him. He turned, only to be greeted by Kim Possible's foot as it connected with his face. Her momentum kept her going and she pushed off Drakken's face sailing through the air towards Shego.

Drakken fell to the floor, his head bouncing off the concrete, causing green stars to burst before his eyes. By the time he sat up and cleared his head, he could hear the sounds of a violent beating taking place. Not a fight, a beating. Fists slamming into flesh, bones cracking, someone choking on their own fluids.

Drakken smiled, sure that Shego had finally gotten the upper hand and turned towards the sounds. His smile quickly disappeared when he saw that Kim Possible had wrestled Shego to the ground and was straddling her.

Drakken winced as Kim's fists came down again, then he stared as he realized that Shego wasn't struggling. She wasn't even moving.

He scanned the area, looking for something to help him stop the crazed teen hero. He found Ron's Kimmunicator, still active. He snatched it up.

"Dr. Drakken?" Wade said, confused. "What are you doing?"

"Never mind that! Do something! She's gone berserk!" Drakken cried.

"What? Who?" Wade asked.

Drakken pointed the Kimmunicator towards Kim and Shego. On the screen Wade's eyes widened.

"Help's on the way. Should be there in three minutes!"

"That's too long!" Drakken tossed the Kimmunicator aside and jumped into the hovercar. He twisted the key and the vehicle roared to life. He snarled and turned the hovercar towards his hated enemy.

---

Kim's face was twisted into a mask of hate as she delivered another blow. She let the rage flow over her. Shego had this coming for a very long time. It didn't matter that a future version of her had warned Kim of the impending apocalypse. It didn't matter that without that future self's advice Kim couldn't have stopped it. All that mattered was that both versions of Shego were responsible for what happened to Ron.

And if the future version wasn't here, then the present version was going to have to pay for both of them.

"…stop…please…" Shego's voice floated up to her. Kim snarled and brought her fist down again. There was a sickening crunch and Shego was silent.

Kim's vision blurred as she kept wailing into Shego. Nothing else mattered but to make her pay. Pay long and hard. Nothing else had any meaning to her.

"BACK OFF, CHEERLEADER!" Drakken's voice penetrated her rage induced hypnosis. Kim turned, ready to deal some pain to the mad scientist, and then rolled out of the way as Drakken tried to mow her down with the hovercar. As she righted herself, Drakken leaped out of the hovercar, scooped Shego up in his arms and climbed back in. He laid her in the back seat, and gunned the controls, turning the car back towards Kim.

Kim's lips curled up into a sneer and she leaped into the air, intending to land inside the hovercar. Drakken sharply pulled the levers of the hover car in opposite directions, causing it to bank to the right, pull a u-turn and out the hole the elephants had left in the wall.

"You think you're all that?" Drakken cried as he departed. "You're even worse than we are!"

Kim screamed in frustration and began running across the floor. She darted out the hole in the wall. They were not going to get away from her.

As she passed through the hole there was a blinding flash. Kim threw her arms up then blinked as her vision cleared. A small armada of police cars, EMT units, media vans, and vehicles with the Global Justice logo were outside.

Kim ignored them and continued running. Several large police officers and GJ operatives blocked her path, Kim punched and kicked her way through and over them, landing on the hood of one of the cars, and she scrambled up to the roof, then down the back to the ground.

But it was too late. Drakken and Shego had escaped. Kim stood there, watching the speck that was the hovercar receded in the distance. She breathed heavily through clenched teeth, the rage still coursing through her.

A hand touched her shoulder. Kim whirled around, fist clenched, ready to punch out whoever was daring to touch her.

She stopped short when she saw her parents standing behind her. There was no anger on their faces, only sorrow and concern.

Kim blinked. "Mom? Dad? How?"

"The symposium broke up early." Her dad said. "Wade caught us right as we walked in the door."

"She killed him." Kim said quietly. "She killed him and I let her get away." She fought to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. "She killed Ron, and I let her get AWAY!"

Lisa took her daughter in her arms, as the rage turned to grief. "Shhh, its okay Kim. It'll be okay."

Kim sniffed and looked up at her mother. The rage flared up again and her face turned ugly.

"She got away. But I'll find her, Mom. I'll find her. And when I do," Kim's voice lowered in volume so only she and her parents could hear. "I'm going to rip her fucking heart out."

The tears returned and Kim hugged her mother tightly. James and Lisa looked down at their daughter, then at each other, confused and frightened.


	6. Inversion

**Chapter 5: Inversion**

It was dark in Kim's room. It had been dark in Kim's room for the week following the funeral.

Ron's funeral.

After Drakken and Shego had escaped from the warehouse, and Kim had been forcibly dragged back to the house, her mother had given her a sedative and told Wade to call Global Justice to handle Monkey Fist.

The simian supervillain had been successfully captured, and the Scepter of Mandrilla returned to the Congo. And that, it seemed was that. The world was saved, and Ron was dead.

Since then, aside from the funeral itself and a couple of training missions she'd asked Wade to set up for her, Kim hadn't left her room in all that time.

She spent days on her bed, or staring out the window, lost in memories, or looking at old photographs. Her and Ron in preschool. Her and Ron in elementary school. Her and Ron in middle school, then high school.

Her and Ron. She had thought, after the prom, that maybe it would have been her and Ron forever. But it wasn't. Now it was just her.

Her alone. From now until the end.

There was a rustle of movement from the bed. Kim turned from the photo album and pulled the blanket back. Rufus was twitching in his sleep again. Kim's lips turned up in a sympathetic smile and she stroked the mole rat's spine with two fingers. Rufus sighed and lapsed back into restful slumber.

Well, maybe she wasn't completely alone, but without Ron, all the fun had gone right out of saving the world. She had Wade shut the website down. He put a notice on it that the shutdown was only temporary, but Kim was pretty sure she wasn't going to have it reactivated.

_What's the point?_ She thought, _I save the world from whacko bad guys and they either bust out of prison or escape in the first place and go right back to the entire world domination thing. And now that Shego— _

Kim winced and wiped her eyes. She wasn't going to allow herself to remember it. The glow, the blood. The look of utter shock on Ron's lifeless face.

Kim pounded her desk with her fists. Control. Calm down. Quell the rage. Kill the pain.

And that was the real problem, wasn't it? She couldn't control herself anymore. She had tried the mock missions Wade had set up for her, but she kept second guessing herself and worrying about the repercussions of her actions.

For the first time, she began to consider what might happen if one of her enemies got pissed off enough to take out their aggravation with her on her family. And those doubts and fears were ping ponging with her unquenchable desire to find Shego, wherever the toxic green bitch was hiding these days, and get her alone.

_Just her, me, some surgical tubing, a lawn chair, a hacksaw, a pair of rusty pliers, a ream of cheap pulp paper, a dull chisel, a sledgehammer, a gallon of lemon juice and a fifty pound bag of rock salt_.

Kim closed her eyes and forced herself to calm down. She was losing it. Completely and utterly losing it. And a girl who lost it was not a girl who could do anything, least of all save the world.

"Kim?"

Kim's eyes snapped open at the sound of her mother's voice. "Yeah?" she called back.

"You have some mail, if you want it." Lisa said from the bottom of the stairs. Kim sighed and forced herself to go down the stairs that led to the rest of the house.

That was the other thing. After the media circus, the fan mail and the condolence cards started pouring in. From Global Justice, from former clients, from heads of state and corporations, from her fans. It was starting to be overwhelming, and just a little annoying. She could only read so many variations on "I'm sorry" for so long.

Lisa was holding only one envelope when Kim reached the bottom of the stairs. "It was just delivered by private courier." She said.

"Thanks, Mom." Kim took the letter and turned to go back up to her room.

"Kim, are you sure you don't want dinner? It's pizza night." Lisa asked.

"I'm not hungry." Kim said, not turning. Lisa put a hand on Kim's shoulder.

"Sweetie, I know it hurts. And I'm not going to tell you that you have to move on. You will when you're ready, your father and I know that. But we worry about you. It would make us feel better if you came out of your room occasionally, just to let us know you're okay, all right?"

Kim looked over her shoulder. "I'm not okay, Mom. Not anymore."

She trudged back up the stairs to her room. Behind her, Lisa looked up at her daughter, worried sick.

---

Kim flopped back onto her bed, being careful to avoid squashing Rufus. The jostling awakened the naked rodent who yawned, opened his eyes, and trudged over to Kim, snuggling up against her hair. Kim smiled again and reached up to pet Rufus.

"I miss him, Rufus." She said.

"Me too," Rufus replied. He climbed up over Kim's shoulder and landed on the letter. "Wha' this?"

"Hmm?" Kim said, opening her eyes. "Oh, some letter that just came. Probably another stupid damn condolence card."

Rufus was waling across the envelope and noticed the monogram on the flap. He started jumping up and down and pointing at it.

"Geez, Rufus, no more energy drinks for you." Kim said, sitting up.

"Look look look!" Rufus insisted. "Seniors!"

Kim frowned and picked up the envelope. Sure enough, the monogram on the envelope flap was a stylized "SSS" inside a gold wreath.

"What the? Why would the Seniors be sending a letter to me?" She slid her thumb under the flap and slit the envelope open. The note inside was printed on expensive vellum and written in a firm, elegant hand.

**_My dear Kim Possible, _**

**_Please allow me to express condolences to you on behalf of my son and myself on the tragic loss of young Mr. Ron Stoppable. I realize mere words from someone who you would rightly regard as an enemy may seem hollow and insincere, but I wish to assure you that this is far from the truth. _**

**_I found Mr. Stoppable to be quite dynamic, persistent, and, I must admit, rather amusing. And whatever he may have lacked in skill and grace compared to yourself, he more than made up in enthusiasm and loyalty to you and your cause. _**

**_I can only say that I too will miss his presence on those occasions our paths happen to cross. I realize that the loss may seem to be too much to bear, but if you will allow an old villain to act a bit parental for a moment, when I lost my lovely wife Miranda, I also thought that it wasn't worth going on with my businesses. However, I also realized that Miranda would be quite disappointed in me if I were to simply give up. That gave me the courage to get through my grief and go on with my life. I feel Ron Stoppable would believe the same of you. _**

**_Be well, Kim Possible, and believe me when I say that I truly believe that you will rise above this unfortunate event, and, in time, once again be ready to vex the plans of unscrupulous villains world wide. _**

**_I eagerly await that day. And believe me to be, my dear young lady, _**

**_Very sincerely yours, _**

**_Senor Senior, Senior_**

Kim set the letter down, a little surprised. She never expected any of her adversaries to give a damn about her, except to maybe dance on her grave when she died. To get a sincere sounding note from Senior, Sr. was a little unnerving.

And actually, kind of sweet, too.

She leaned back on her pillows, opening the note again and re-reading it. She felt a little bit better, knowing there was somebody out there who knew what she was going through. It made the anger she was feeling lessen and—

She sat up as an idle memory crossed her mind, just as she reached the end of Senior's note.

"'…I truly believe you will rise above this unfortunate event and, in time, once again be ready to vex the plans of unscrupulous villains…'" Kim read slowly. "In time. Time."

Her eyes widened and a grin crossed her face. She snatched up Rufus and held him before her face. "Time, Rufus! It's all about time!"

"Time?" Rufus repeated, confused.

"Yes! It'll work. It has to!" She put Rufus down and grabbed the Kimmunicator from her nightstand. "Wade? You there?"

"Kim?" Wade said, surprised. "You all right? You sound…different."

"I've figured it out, Wade. I know how to get through this." Kim said. "I'm ready for a mission."

"Great! There's been a bunch of hits on the site in the meantime, what are you in the mood for? Rescue mission? Doomsday plot? Treasure hunt?"

"None of the above." Kim said, "I'm the one with the sitch this time. This one's personal."

"O-kay?" Wade said, "So, what do you need from me?"

"I need the location, blueprints, and security system schematics of the main R&D lab for Tempex Technologies."

"Security?" Wade frowned. "Kim, what are you planning?"

"I'm going to fix a mistake." Kim answered. "And I'm doing it with or without your help, Wade. You in or out?"

Wade looked apprehensive. "You do realize your talking about a major felony. And if the cops catch you, that's the end of all the stuff we've worked for."

Kim nodded. "If this works, any repercussions won't get a chance to happen. And if not, well, I was thinking it was time to retire anyway. At least I'll have tried."

Wade was silent for a moment, then:

"I'm in."

"Good," Kim said. "I knew I could count on you. Now, get cracking, but first, get me a ride. I need to go pick something up."

---

The Bermuda Triangle Club was generally reserved for those who operated outside the law. Supervillains, international spies, freelance assassins. Anything was available to anyone at the Club for the right price. Most law abiding types gave the place a wide berth. It was too easy for your typical do-gooder to go in and never be seen again, like so many others that wandered into that particular area of the ocean.

This is why nearly everybody in the place stopped what they were doing and stared when Kim Possible strode in through the front doors. She came down the stairs leading to the club floor, and glared at the throng of villains.

"I'm here on business. I'm not here for any of you. I'll be gone in half an hour. Anyone have a problem with that?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, ego warring with self preservation. Word had gotten around what Kim had done to Shego when she discovered Ron's body. Slowly, the gazes shifted elsewhere and the music started back up again. Kim smirked to herself and headed towards the private rooms, and her appointment.

---

"Ah, Kim Possible." Said the large corpulent man with the bushy eyebrows.

"Big Daddy Brotherson." Kim replied. "The password is 'ferret pants.'"

Big Daddy smirked and gestured to the bean bag chair across the table from him. "Please, sit."

Kim took a seat and looked at Big Daddy. "So, I assume you have what I asked for?"

"That all depends," Big Daddy replied. "Do you have what _I_ asked for?"

"That also depends." Kim answered, a small smile on her lips.

"On what, exactly?"

"Whether you are referring to the $1500 dollars, which is highway robbery, by the way. Or if you're referring to the answer to the question you asked when I called you."

Big Daddy grinned. "You are very good at this game, Miss Possible. And you must expect a markup when you decide to go outside certified dealers in order to avoid the formality of registration. And, of course, you're paying for quality of merchandise, as well."

Kim reached into a pocket and placed a wad of cash on the table. "There's the money."

"And the answer to my question?"

Kim wagged a finger. "Uh uh uh. The merchandise?"

Big Daddy signaled to the hulking goon in the corner. The goon placed a small metal box on the table. Kim tried the lid, not surprised to find it locked.

"The key?" she asked.

"The answer." Big Daddy said.

"Anson Williams." Kim replied. Big Daddy quirked an eyebrow, then tossed Kim a small key.

"Correct. You know your trivia."

"No big. Five seconds on the internet." Kim unlocked the box, lifted the lid and inspected the item inside. "Does it have everything we agreed on?"

"It is…fully equipped. You will find the peripherals under the foam padding. I must say, I was rather surprised you asked for it. I thought you weren't partial to that sort of thing in your line of work."

"Times change," Kim said, standing up. "Or they will, if I have anything to say about it."

"One question before you go. No games, just for my own information." Big Daddy said, "Is it true? The rumor I heard about you and Shego?"

Kim frowned. "If it's the one about us being trapped on a desert island somewhere, no. If it's about what I did to her after she killed Ron, it's not only true, but probably worse than you heard. Anything else?"

"No, I'm quite satisfied with our business. I don't know what you're planning, Miss Possible, but I get the feeling it is not only necessary, but vital. So may I simply wish you good luck? Because I feel you will need it."

"I appreciate that, Big Daddy. Have a nice evening."

"You too, Miss Possible." As Kim turned and left the room, Big Daddy leaned back in his seat, steepling his fingers and frowning in thought.

---

"Thanks again for the ride, Jacques," Kim said to the captain of the speedboat that was taking her back to Miami.

"After you helped me save my crab harvest in time for Fantasy Fest last year, it was the least I could do. You helped me make my mortgage payment that month." Jacques said.

"No big. All I did was rewire the boat's radio to act as a sonic mating call for crabs. The traps were your department."

Jacques laughed. "You are far too modest, Kim. A young lady like you who goes out of her way to help people is a rare sight these days. My children look up to you, you know."

Behind Jacques, Kim's face fell. "Do they? Oh…great."

She went to the rear section of the cabin and unlocked the box she'd gotten from Big Daddy. She stared down at the 9mm Browning pistol she had asked for. The gun was black, heavy and looked extraordinarily lethal.

"Just great."


	7. Tempex Fugitive

**CHAPTER 6: Tempex Fugitive**

Kim was up in her room, going through her supplies for the night, checking each and placing it in her pack.

_Grapple gun, check. Kimmunicator, check. Laser lipstick, check. Compact, check. _

She frowned and looked down at the box on her bed. She opened it, pulled out the gun, slid the clip out, checked to make sure it was full, and slid it back in. She made sure the safety was on, and looked at it. Her face was expressionless. Her mind, on the other hand, was going through the pros and cons of what she was planning to do. Whether she was really ready to cross the line she had drawn for herself a long time ago. Whether this was going to be the best option to prevent Shego from doing what she did.

_If she could do it to stop World War III, I can do it to stop her from killing Ron. That's all that matters._

It sounded good in her head. But in the back of her mind, she wondered why she didn't really believe it.

She heard footsteps coming up the stairs to her room. Kim quickly put the gun in the holster pocket she normally used for her grapple gun, snapped it shut, and hid the box under her bed.

"Kim? You up here?" Kim's mom appeared in the hatchway leading to the stairs.

"Yeah, Mom. Getting ready for a mission." Kim answered, going back to fiddling with her pack.

"Really?" Lisa climbed into the room, and took in the sight of Kim in her mission clothes. "Are you sure you're ready for that?"

"Not really," Kim answered, "but I thought about what you said, and you were right. I need to get out of my room. Wade was starting to complain I was stealing his schtick."

Lisa smiled. "Well, you've gotten your sense of humor back. That's encouraging."

"Yeah," Kim paused in her preparations. "Mom, do you think I went too far? With Shego, I mean."

Lisa's smile disappeared, and she looked uncomfortable. "I think you were angry. And I think it was understandable, given the circumstances."

Kim looked at her mother. "But you think I went too far."

"Honestly? Yes. It scared me, Kim. I have never seen that expression on your face. I know you've faced off with Shego before, and I know the hate between the two of you has been escalating over the years. But, Kim, no matter what she's done, she didn't deserve that. Not from you. That's why the law is there, and it should have dealt with her for what she did to Ron."

Kim looked down at the floor. "I know. But I just couldn't control it. One second Ron was there, then he wasn't. And all I could think of was everything she's done and how she needed to pay for it."

Lisa nodded. "Just be careful, Kim. Your father and I, we know this is what you do, but we still worry every time that when you go out, that maybe, this time, you won't come back. And after this last mission, now we have to worry that you may accidentally kill someone."

Kim looked back up. "You do?"

"Don't think it would mean we wouldn't understand if it did happen, especially if you were defending yourself." Lisa said quickly. "But you aren't a killer, Kim. You're better than that. We just don't want you to end up in that situation again."

Kim became acutely aware of the weight of the gun in her holster. "I…hope so too." she said. "I think, after this mission, that situation will never come up."

"Good," Lisa said. "Anything you need before you go?"

"Just one thing." Kim came over and hugged her mother. "I love you , Mom."

Lisa smiled and hugged back. "I love you too, Kimmie."

Kim broke the hug and grabbed her pack. "I have to go. My ride will be here any minute."

"When will you be back?" Lisa asked.

"Shouldn't be any later than 11." Kim answered. _Of course, if this works, we're never going to have this conversation._

"All right. Just be careful." Lisa said.

"I will." The two of them walked down the stairs to the rest of the house. Outside, there was a flash of headlights and a horn honked. "There's my ride."

"Good luck." Lisa said. Kim kissed her on the cheek and left the house. The headlights flashed again, and Lisa walked over to the living room window. She frowned as a chilling thought came into her mind, completely irrational and yet, something she was absolutely sure about.

_I'll never see her again._

---

Kim stood on the cliff above the top secret R&D lab of Tempex Technologies. She was thankful she had decided to wait until the weekend to try to break into the lab. Less of a chance of someone working late at the office.

The security patrol passed by the back fence roughtly every forty five minutes, plenty of time to get past the electric fence. It was the motion detectors buried in the lawn and the security cameras that were going to be a problem.

She pulled out the Kimmunicator. "Wade? Please tell me you've got what I needed."

Wade nodded. "I'm working on getting into the security system now. But there's something else."

"Great. What is it? Robotic dobermans that like the taste of human flesh?"

"Nothing having to do with the security. We got a message from Drakken on the site."

Kim frowned. "What's he threatening?"

"Nothing," Wade answered, "That's what weird. It's just a text message with one line."

"One line? What's it say?"

Wade typed for a minute on his keyboard. "'Sharon Egan is dead.'"

"Who's Sharon Egan? And why would Drakken care? More importantly, why would he tell us about it?"

"I'm working on that. In the meantime, the fence, the cameras and the motion detectors should be shutting down in about one minute."

Kim nodded. "What about inside?"

"More security cameras, about ten guards who make perpetual rounds throughout the building constantly for two hours at a time," Wade typed some more. "Once you're in the lab itself, there's a laser grid, motion detectors on the floor, and a fifteen digit code lock on the safe itself."

"Difficult, but not serious." Kim said. "Dig up what you can on Sharon Egan. If Drakken's telling us about her, it has to be important."

"Can do. Be careful, Kim."

"Always am." Kim clicked off the Kimmunicator and looked down at the compound. She took a deep breath. "Here goes nothing."

She leaped into the air and began sliding on her feet down the angle of the cliff, rocks and dirt shifting as she moved. She twisted her body as she slid down the cliff, maintining her balance, but also gaining momentum.

As she hit the bottom of the cliff, she bounced herself off a rock laying outside the fence, somersaulted into the air, over the fence and landed with a small "chuff" on the grass inside the compound. She scanned the area quickly and dashed to the side of the building, flattening herself up against it.

She edged to the corner of the building and peered around it. A guard with a dog was rounding the far corner of the building. Kim slid back around her own corner, opened her pack and got out the grapple gun.

She stepped away from the wall, turned, closed one eye, and fired. The grapple shot out and latched onto the edge of the roof. Kim retracted the gun and slid up the side of the building, kicking off near the top and landed on the roof.

She reached down to put the grapple gun in her holster pocket, then looked down when she encountered resistance. _Oh…right. _

She put the grapple gun back in her pack and began looking for an access point on the roof. Suddenly, she felt movement on her leg. She looked down and saw a lump in her leg pocket moving around. The flap of the pocket opened and Rufus popped his head out.

"Rufus?" Kim asked, incredulously.

"Hi!" Rufus said, waving a claw. Kim sighed and pulled the mole rat out of her pocket.

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Save Ron." Rufus answered. Kim shook her head.

"I know you want to help, but I have to do this alone. I don't want you getting hurt."

"You go, I go." Rufus said firmly, crossing his forelegs.

"Rufus…" Kim said.

"Not leaving." Rufus said, before sticking his tongue out at her.

Kim rolled her eyes and sighed in exasperation. "All right, you can come along, but be careful, all right?"

Rufus saluted and dived back down into Kim's pocket. Kim continued looking for the roof access, when the Kimmunicator beeped. She sighed in exasperation.

"This never happens in all those caper movies." She pulled it out. "Make it fast, Wade, I'm on the roof."

Wade typed quickly. "There's a ventilator shaft about sixty feet off to your right."

Kim looked around and spotted it. "Thanks,Wade."

"That's not why I called. I finally found info on Sharon Egan."

"Five minutes? You're slipping, Wade."

"It's not that, there was almost nothing on her. It was as if she didn't exist. Somebody went to a lot of trouble to erase any trace of her from any official records. I lucked out."

"What do you have?" Kim asked.

"High school yearbook photo from some place called Sky High."

"Never heard of it." Kim said.

"Me either, but it was the only place I found a picture of Sharon Egan. Prepare for a shock."

A picture appeare on the Kimmunicator of a teenage girl with long black hair with a streak of neon green in it, a sour expression and pale, slightly green skin. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail, and she was wearing a black letterman's jacket. Kim stared at the picture.

"Sharon Egan…" she started.

"…was Shego's real name." Wade finished. "She's dead, Kim."

Kim stood still for a few seconds then looked at Wade. "I can't worry about that now. Just be ready when I call you once I get to the safe."

"Kim," Wade said, "This is serious. People are going to want to talk to you."

"Don't argue with me, Wade. Be ready." Kim clicked off the Kimmunicator and turned to the ventilator access. She reached into one of the pouches in her belt, took out a small crescent wrench and began working on the bolts holding the grate over the vent.

Vents were usually the weak point in any security setup. While it was possible to place a laser grid or motion detectors in them, calibration was a problem. Both devices were indiscriminate in what would cause them to be set off. A decent sized insect, or a piece of paper that had been sucked into the vents could set them off. It was generally considered more hassle than it was worth to implement security in the vents themselves.

It was a fact that Kim had always been grateful for. She undid the last bolt, leaned the grate up against the vent shaft and climbed inside. She slid down the shaft into the vent system proper. She clicked on the Kimmunicator.

"Wade? I need those blueprints."

"Kim, I really think you should call this off." Wade said. Kim frowned.

"Wade, you said you were in."

"I know, but you're getting in way too deep. Breaking in here, killing Shego."

"That wasn't intentional, and you know it." Kim said. "Besides, like I said, if this works, it won't have happened."

"What about the gun?"

Kim stared at Wade. "How did you know about the gun?"

"Word got around at VillainsRUs." Wade answered. "Why do you think it's been so quiet lately? The statement 'Kim Possible has a gun' scared the crap out of quite a few people."

"So much for Big Daddy's reputation for confidentiality." Kim muttered. "Wade, the gun is there as insurance. I promise you, I won't use it unless I have to, and even then only to wound, not kill. All right?"

Wade looked at her, then his face relaxed. "All right." He tapped a few keys and a blueprint of the vent system appeared on the Kimmunicator screen with a glowing green dot. "Take a left and go forward about thirty feet."

"Thanks, Wade." Kim said. She pocketed the Kimmunicator and began crawling down the vent.

---

"You should be coming up a grate in the bottom of the vent right about now." Wade said. Kim glanced ahead and saw light radiating into the vent.

"Got it," she whispered and crawled over to the grate. She looked down and saw the laser net that crisscrossed the room holding Tempex's experimental time travel device. The safe was conveinently embedded into the counter directly underneath the vent. She also saw the laser grid that was crisscrossing the vent grate itself.

"Oh, for crying out loud," Kim muttered. "One lousy spy flick and everybody has to have the same gadget."

She reached into her pocket and pulled out her compact. She flipped it open, popped the mirror out of the plastic case, and snapped it in half. She edged back from the grate, and reached over her shoulder, into her pack. Her hand fumbled around inside for a few minutes, then she pulled out a collapsable metal rod with a clamp on either end. She fixed the halves of the mirror into the clamps, then went back to the grate. She extended the rod and slid the mirrors in front of the laser housings on either side of the grate. The mirrors reflected the beams back to the housings, effectively fooling the security system into thinking everything was fine, while eliminating the laser net over the grate.

She got out a small screwdriver and wedged it into the side of the grate between it and the vent proper. She applied some force and popped the grate out on that side. She reached down, grabbed the grate, then did the same to the other side. She pulled the grate into the vent and placed it at her side. She pulled out the Kimmunicator.

"Wade," I'm about to go in, the laser net shouldn't be a problem, but the cameras could be a problem."

Wade was typing on his computer. "Give me fifteen seconds, then slide in. Once you're in, jack the Kimmunicator into the keypad for the safe and I'll run a decryptor through it."

Kim nodded. "Check. What's the time frame?"

"I can kill the cameras and feed a loop to the security monitors for about two minutes. It's going to take at least 45 seconds for the decryptor to work on the safe. After that, you're visible. So slide carefully, but make it fast."

"Gotcha." Kim said. She got out the grapple gun, secured the grapple to the edge of the vent, let out a length of the cable, then clipped the gun to her belt. She pulled a scrunchie out of her pocket and pulled her hair back into a bun. She then opened her leg pocket and pulled Rufus out.

"You stay here and keep an eye out." She told the mole rat sternly. Rufus nodded and took position on the other edge of the vent access.

"Three…two…one…NOW!" Wade said. Kim took a deep breath, gripped the edge of the vent access and slowly flipped out of the vent. As she became vertical, she bent her legs at the hips and swung them up towards the vent. She continued her flip and wrapped the grapple cable around her left ankle, then let go of the edge of the vent. She hung upside down for a couple of seconds to get her bearings, then thumbed the grapple gun's setting to "Extend" and pulled the trigger.

The grapple cable began to let out, and Kim held her breath as she was carefully lowered towards the safe below her. She held her arms close to her sides, and her legs together as she slid past the web of red beams that came within mere centimeters of touching her.

When she was about five feet from the safe, the grapple gun wheezed then shudder to a halt. Kim nearly lost her grip on the cable, but quickly recovered. She looked up at the cable, frowned, then stretched out her left hand, trying to reach the keypad. Her fingertips brushed the counter but were unable to get enough leverage to activate any of the buttons on the keypad.

Kim huffed quietly, then carefully extracted the Kimmunicator from her pocket. "Wade," she whispered, "Problem. The gun's jammed, and I can't get close enough to jack in the Kimmiunicator."

"The jack can come out of the Kimmunicator, but you're going to need to connect it to the keypad." Wade said. "You've only got a minute and a half left!"

Kim cursed silently, then realized she wasn't alone on this mission. She looked back up at the vent. "Rufus!" she hissed.

Rufus poked his head over the edge of the vent, and chittered questioningly. Kim gestured with her fingers. Rufus began climbing down the grapple cable. As hie did so, Kim opened the bottom of the Kimmunicator and pulled out the interface jack. Rufus climbed down Kim's pants and over her left arm.

Kim handed him the interface jack. "Plug this into the keypad. Don't touch the lasers, and be careful." Rufus took the wire attatched to the jack in his mouth and nodded. Kim extended her left arm towards the safe. Rufus scampered along her arm and onto the counter. He put the jack down next to the keypad and pried open an access panel under it, revealing an interface port. He plugged the jack into the port and looke dback up at Kim.

"All set!" he said. Kim smiled.

"Good going, Rufus." She said. She held the Kimmunicator in front of her face. "All yours, Wade."

"45 seconds to decode. You better get the gun unjammed. It's going to be tight." Wade replied. Kim pocketed the Kimmunicator and reached up to the grapple gun. She thumbed the gun to "Retract" and pulled the trigger softly. The gun whirred but the cable remained where it was. Kim frowned and shook the gun, causing ripples to vibrate up the cable. She froze as one of them came close to one of the laser beams. The cable swung back and forth, then slowly came to a rest. Kim breathed in relief.

"The Kimmunicator beeped. Kim pulled it back out and clicked it on. "Go, Wade."

"It's open. You've got fifty seconds. Hurry!"

Kim bit her lip, then slowly loosened the line wrapped around her ankle. She slid down the line even further, and looked at Rufus. "Open it."

Rufus pressed the "Open" button on the keypad and pushed on the latch. A red light on the keypad turned green, and there was a hiss of pressurized air. Kim reached down and opened the safe. Inside was a small device resembling an oversized wristwatch. Rufus jumped into the safe and pulled on the device, freeing one side of the wristband and pointing it up towards Kim.

Kim reached down and yanked on the wristband, causing the device to come free and slap into her palm. Kim grinned, and Rufus crawled up her arm to her belt.

Then the alarms sounded.

"What the hell!" Kim said. She grabbed the Kimmunicator. "Wade?"

"Must have been a pressure switch in the safe." Wade replied. "That alarm sends an alert to the police. Get out of there, Kim!"

"Just a sec!" Kim unclipped the grapple from her belt and flipped onto the floor. She grabbed the Kimmunicators interface jack and connected it to the back of the time travel device. "Analyze this and figure out how it works. I'll try to buy some time."

"Kim!"

"Now, Wade!" Kim clicked off and shoved both devices in her pocket. She grabbed the grapple gun and shook the grapple free. As she did so, she pressed the trigger. There was a brief whine then the cable retracted sharply, the grapple connecting with the gun with a clang.

"NOW, it works." Kim rolled her eyes and dashed across the room to the door. Rufus scrabbled into Kim's pocket and held on.

Kim burst out of the lab into the corridor. Two security guards were racing down the hall towards her. They stopped short when they saw her there.

"Isn't that Kim Possible?" one asked. Kim frowned then vaulted between the two guards and raced back down the hall behind them. The guards stared for a moment, them one grabbed his walkie talkie. "Jim? Call out the rest of the guys. We've got a theif in the building. Shut the place down!"

The guards turned and began chasing after Kim. Kim rounded a corner and was greeted by two more guards. She quickly scanned the hallway looking for an exit. One of the guards pulled out a stun gun and pointed it at her.

"Hold it right there!" he bellowed. Kim frowned and looked past them, spotting a fire exit door down the hall behind the guards. Kim took a couple of slow steps backward. The guards cautiously inched forward.

Kim smirked and dashed forward. The guard fired the stun gun. Kim sprang sideways, bounced off the wall, and landed behind the guards. The taser connected with the tile floor, sparkng futily. Kim dashed down the hall and through the fire door. The guards turned and followed her.

Kim found herself in a stairwell. Below her, she heard several other guards racing up the stairs. Others were coming from above, and it was a sure bet the two she had left behind were going to be coming in any second. She reached down to her holster pocket, abruptly remembered why pulling out what was in there would be a bad idea, then reached behind her for the grapple gun. She aimed, fired, and retracted, shooting up past the guards, and swinging through the door at the top of the sairwell.

She found herself back on the roof. In the distance, she could hear sirens. She looked out into the distance and saw flashing red and blue lights rapidly approaching the building.

"Damn. Cut off." She pulled out the laser lipstick and used it to fuse the door latch. "That should buy me some time." She reached into her pocket and pulled out the Kimmunicator and the time travel device. "Wade, please tell me you have this thing figured out. Because otherwise, I'm going to be entering college when I'm 30. And tell me fast, I've got security and the police on my tail."

"All right," Wade said, "There's five settings--"

"Five!" Kim said. "I thought all you had to do was set the date and time you wanted to go to. That's how it works in the movies."

"You're almost right. But everything in the universe moves, Kim. The planet rotates and it revolves around the sun. The sun revolves with the galaxy, and the galaxy is hurtling along with an ever expanding universe. Middleton isn't in the same spatial coordinates it was yesterday, let alone a week ago. You need to set time of day, date, year, and two compensation settings for planetary and universal motion. Now, do you want to do this or not?"

"Sorry." Kim said. Her expression turned solemn. "I really appreciate this, Wade. I appreciate everything you've done for me."

"Kim…" Wade said, frowning.

"Just wanted to say it, since if this works, you probably won't remember it when I get back."

Wade looked at her strangely, then wiped at one of his eyes.

"Wade?" Kim asked. "You okay?"

"Sorry, just a really stupid thought. You ready to go save Ron?"

There was a loud crash as the guards began throwing their weight against the roof access. Kim looked at it then back at the Kimmunicator. "Whether I am or not, it has to be now!"

Wade nodded. "Set the date, time, and year you want. After that, input the coordinates for Middleton that I give you and set them to be locked into the device. That will make it automatically compensate to deposit you within Middleton and not out in space somewhere."

Kim nodded and strapped the time travel device to her wrist. She held it up to her face and began following Wade's instructions. No sooner had she input the last set of coordinates and locked them in, the door burst open and the security guards and a couple of police officers poured onto the roof, weapons drawn.

"Put your hands on your head and get down on the ground!" One of the police officers yelled. Kim turned to face them, frowning, and put her hands on her head.

"On the ground, I said!"

"Sorry, officer," Kim said, tapping the "activate" key on the device. "Don't have time right now. Later!"

There was an explosion of blue light. The guards and officers could only watch as a huge pool of blue light appeared below Kim's feet. She grinned and sunk rapidly into the pool. No sooner had she dropped into the pool of light, then there was another flash.

When their vision cleared, the security guards and the police found themselves staring at a charred circle on the roof. Kim Possible was nowhere to be found.


	8. Cassandra's Vengeance

**CHAPTER 7: Cassandra's Vengeance**

Kim's vision was awash in blue light, and she was aware she was falling. The light was blinding and she closed her eyes. As she fell, she began to wonder if she had set the coordinates Wade had gave her correctly. If not, she could look forward to about thirty seconds of simultaneously freezing, burning, asphyxiating, and decompressing to death once she finished this trip.

Her mind began to play back everything that had happened. The heist at Tempex. The note from Senor Senior, Sr. Ron's funeral, the warehouse raid, Shego's visit…it all became a blur in her mind, lost in the flashes of blue light that slipped between her eyelids. The flashes of light began to run together and she became aware of something else, something hiding behind the blue.

_This is the way the world ends…_

Her eyes flew open as the phrase passed through her mind. The nightmare came rushing back to her, and she realized she actually did see something lurking behind the tunnel of blue light, Something black, cold and relentless. As she watched the shadow behind the light, it suddenly shifted and she knew it was looking at her.

Looking at her with unbridled coldness and cruelty. The rushing of air coalesced into an inhuman howl that made her thrown her hands up to her ears, squeeze her eyes shut, and begin crying out in pain.

The blue flashes of light became to turn black at the edges, and she knew he was about to pass out. The blackness grew inexorably and rapidly, and all conscious thought shut down.

_Beware the Timebreaker…_

----

Kim's eyes opened to the sight of a canine nose filling her field of vision. She blinked a few times as her brain tried to comprehend what she was looking at.

Comprehension was dramatically assisted when the dog covered her in slobber. Kim squealed in disgust and sat up, wiping her face. The dog barked in surprise and ran off. Kim sat up and looked around. She was sitting on a sidewalk in the warehouse section of Middleton, only about three blocks from Drakken's hideout.

"Nice work, Wade." She said aloud. She looked down at her watch. Ten-thirty AM. _Shego said they arrived sometime in the afternoon. I need to get over there and find a place to hide. Hide, wait for Ron and…me, I guess. Then…_

Kim reached down and put a hand on her holster pocket. She grabbed the grip of the gun through the fabric, and frowned.

_Then…I kill Shego, save Ron, and go home. World is saved, and Drakken loses his best weapon. No big, right?_

"Right." She answered out loud. She stood up and started walking towards the warehouse, ignoring the part of her that was screaming that her plan was going somewhere beyond completely whacked.

No sooner had she taken a few steps than there was a sharp pain in her stomach which caused her to wince and double over. She checked herself over, and then smacked her forehead as she realized what was causing the pain.

----

"So that's four Supra-GargantuBurgers, three orders of Mega Rings, three Choco-Whippies, and a Humongo sized cola."

"DIETcola, thanks." Kim said.

"Gotcha," the Burger Duke cashier said, making the correction. "Anything else?"

Rufus popped out of her pocket. "Pie!"

Kim looked down at him and considered for a minute. "Oh, what the hell. Give me six apple pies while I'm at it."

"Okay."

--

Later, fed and ready for action, Kim arrived at the warehouse. She picked the lock on one of the side doors and slipped inside, locking the door behind her.

The warehouse was as large as she remembered it. Apparently, Drakken had already begun to make arrangements to move in. The elephant pen was already in place, and it looked like the cable for the TV had been installed. Illegally, no doubt.

She scanned the area and noticed a catwalk along the outside of the building about twelve feet overhead. It had easy access to the rafters above with a quick leap or grapple shot in the event one or both of them decided to check things out up there.

Kim looked around, located the access ladder for the catwalk and climbed up, retracting the ladder, and took a position on the catwalk where she figured she could watch Drakken and Shego without them being able to see her.

She pressed her back against the wall, and slid down it into a sitting position. She sighed, and rested her head against the wall. It had been a rough day, from her point of view at any rate, and it wasn't over yet.

She reached into her holster pocket and pulled out the gun. She held it up in front of her, and frowned.

_You really going to go through with it, Possible? _Said a voice in her head. _Gonna cross that line?_

"I have to. If I don't, Ron's going to die again."

_Technically, he hasn't died once yet. _

"Whatever!" Kim snapped. "The point is that he'll be dead if I don't do something."

_So, you've decided to give Shego the death penalty before she even commits the crime?_

"If it means stopping her from committing it, yes."

_By that logic, you should take out Drakken while you're at it. That'll teach him for trying to take over the world with plans he hasn't thought up yet._

"Shut up." Kim whispered.

_And once Drakken and Shego are dealt with? Why not take out Dementor next? And after him, Monkey Fist, the Seniors, DNAmy…_

"Shut UP."

_And then after the supervillains, take out the regular criminals. And after that, people who talk on their cell phones in movie theaters. You know what? Why not just kill everybody and annex Poland?_

"SHUT UP!" Kim cried. Rufus squeaked and popped out of her pocket.

"Wh' happened?" he said. Kim looked down at him.

"Sorry, Rufus," she said. "Just arguing with myself. Go back to sleep."

Rufus looked at her quizzically then went back into her pocket. Kim leaned back against the wall. She looked back at the gun, then frowned, clicked the safety off and put it back in her holster pocket. She folded her arms, and then made herself as comfortable as possible before closing her eyes for a quick powernap.

The frown never left her face.

--

"OWWWW! SHEGO!"

Kim awoke with a start at the sound of Drakken's shout. She quietly got to her knees and peered over the edge of the catwalk.

The loading dock door was open and a couple of Drakken's nameless henchmen were herding the elephants into the pen. Drakken himself was trying to lift the television off his foot. Shego walked over to him.

"You know, I offered to help you haul this thing in here. But noooo, Drew had to show off how macho he is," she said, lifting the end of the TV off Drakken's foot.

"You know, I didn't have to bring this behemoth here, Shego. I could have just brought the portable." Drakken said as he pulled his foot out from under the TV.

"Yeah, right. Like you'd watch _Volcano Island_ on a screen that small." Shego answered.

Drakken grumbled. "You can't hear the screams decently on the mono speaker on the portable."

Shego hauled the TV over to the stand and hooked up the cable. "So now what?"

"Now, we wait." Drakken said. He turned to the henchmen. "Go back to the lair and wait for my call. I'll need you for clean up later."

The henchmen saluted and left. Shego looked at the elephants and back at Drakken.

"Um, Dr. D? Speaking of clean up, shouldn't we keep a couple of them around in the meantime?"

"What for?" Drakken asked, as he tossed the air mattresses out of the hovercar and hooked up the air compressor. "All they're going to do is stand around all night and demand overtime."

"Yeah, but that only leaves the two of us to deal with the elephant shit." Shego said. "I cannot tell you how many more things there are that I could be doing now, rather than trying to keep elephant shit off my boots."

"A temporary inconvenience, my dear Shego." Drakken said, as he rummaged around in the storage unit of the hovercar. "Once Kim Possible is eliminated, there'll be nothing that can stand in our way. Are those hip waders from the Loch Ness project still in here?"

"You had me throw them out to make room for the Magma Drill." Shego replied. Penned up on the far side of the warehouse were Drakken's fifteen extremely large, extremely muscular, and extremely chromed battle elephants. Shego held her breath and walked over to them, looking at the glue gun Drakken was planning to have her use on Kim Possible.

"This is NEVER going to work," she said to herself. "Never in a million years."

Behind her, Drakken continued working his way through the storage unit., muttering to himself as well. "Hmm…overshoes…overshoes…I know we had overshoes in here last week. What's this?"

As Drakken pocketed the remote, and Shego wandered over to the elephants, Kim glanced upwards towards the skylight in the roof. She could barely make out her earlier self and Ron looking down at the villains.

She swallowed and pulled out the gun. She took aim, lining Shego up with the sight. She stared at the back of Shego's head for a few minutes, following her as she walked back over to the chair in front of the TV.

_So shoot her. She's right there. She's not expecting it._

"No." Kim said quietly.

_Why not? Shoot her now before the other you and Ron make their move, then time jump the hell out of here before Drakken can do anything._

"I'm not going to shoot her in the back of the head." Kim replied.

_You'd rather risk her seeing you coming?_

"I'd rather listen to her advice and try to take her out as close to Ron's death as possible. If I hadn't jumped the gun tonight, none of this would have happened."

_Interesting choice of words. _

"Shut up."

_So you're going to listen to the advice of the woman you're here to kill because you didn't listen to her advice in the first place. And by following her advice, you hope to be able to kill her more effectively._

"This isn't about killing Shego. It's about saving Ron."

_Is it?_

"Yes, it is."

_If so, then why didn't you just travel further back in time and prevent you and Ron from coming in through the skylight?_

"I'm trying not to screw up time anymore than it already is. Now, shut the hell up."

_Riiiight, you keep telling yourself that, Kim. Whatever helps you sleep at night._

The voice shut up, and Kim shifted her position, lowering the gun, but keeping it handy. Waiting for the right time.

--

Three hours later, Kim moved into the rafters as soon as she saw the skylight open, and her other self and Ron begin sliding into the warehouse. She held onto the gun as she did so.

_Okay, let's see, _she thought, _how did this go down? I went after the remote while Ron went to the door…_

--

Drakken was sprawled out asleep in his chair, and was indeed snoring loudly. As Kim got closer, she saw a movement out of the corner of her eye. When she turned, Shego groaned, grabbed the blanket she was using and pulled it over her head.

"…gonna clear his sinuses with a rusty spoon one of these dayszzzzzz…" Shego murmured before her breathing became regular again. Kim let out a silent sigh of relief, and turned back to Drakken.

His lab coat was open, revealing the black turtleneck he wore underneath it. Kim craned her neck and could make out the edge of the remote hanging out of the lab coat's inside pocket. She took a deep breath, held it, and slowly reached for the remote.

Across the building, Ron was approaching the warehouse door, taking large exaggerated steps. He glanced back and saw Kim freeze as Shego rolled over. He mimicked Kim's sigh when Shego fell back to sleep, then went back to heading for the door.

As he got closer, he felt a sudden shift in weight in his pocket. He looked down, then behind him. Rufus was scampering across the floor towards a large bag of peanuts that had split open near the elephant pen.

Ron clapped a hand over his mouth and gasped, before sprinting across the floor, keeping to the balls of his feet to minimize the sound. He bent low, intending to scoop up Rufus and pull a u-turn back to the door.

--

_Ron trips on the peanuts and frightens the elephants, waking up Drakken and Shego..._

--

Drakken's eyes widened as he saw a familiar teenage face in front of him "Kim Possible!"

"Collecting unused remotes for the homeless!" Kim said brightly. "Oh, look, here's one."

She grabbed the remote from Drakken's pocket and flipped backwards across the floor.

"SHEGO!"

"There already!" Shego said, bouncing off the air mattress towards Kim, flaring up in midair.

--

_Ron somehow releases the elephants…_

--

"Oh come on, this is like a bad weekday cartoon!" Ron complained. He stopped running, then dashed off again, finding purchase for a brief second. Right before he stepped on Rufus. Rufus let out a screech, which Ron echoed as he fell backwards, landing on the lever that opened the gate to the elephant pen.

Ron stared up at the fifteen chromed, muscular, and heavily panicked land animals that were bearing down on him. He screamed, sprang to his feet and began running.

--

_I destroy the remote and Drakken gets me with his glue gun…_

--

As Kim sprang away, she reached into her pocket, pulled out the remote, quickly checked to make sure the safety switch was still engaged, and threw it directly into the path of the elephants. It was caught under the trampling feet of the herd and shattered into hundreds of pieces.

Kim allowed herself a grin. _So much for Armageddon._

Suddenly, she heard a sound like "BLORTCH!" and found herself covered in a sticky slimy substance. She lost control of her momentum and skidded into the wall, where she found herself stuck. She looked up and saw Drakken standing before her with his super glue gun.

--

_Meanwhile, Ron…_

Her train of thought was interrupted as she heard the zipping sound of her grapple gun retracting. She couldn't help but smile as Ron shot into her field of vision, screaming in his inimitable way. She covered her hand with her mouth to block her giggles as she saw Ron scold Rufus and take away his peanut privileges.

_You know, _she thought, _From this side of things, my life can be pretty damn funny sometimes._

All thoughts of humor were quashed, however, when she saw Ron look down and start swinging from the grapple gun, down to provide the distraction that gave Rufus a chance to rescue her other self.

As soon as Ron dropped out of sight, Kim jumped down from the rafters and onto the catwalk, taking aim with the pistol.

She watched as Ron collided with Drakken and Shego. Her finger tensed on the trigger. Drakken sat up holding his head. Ron and Shego kept rolling.

Kim kept the gun trained on Shego's head, waiting for the right moment.

_You're better than this, Kim._

Kim's eyes widened as she finally recognized the voice. Her mother's.

_She doesn't deserve this, not from you, and you know it. You don't kill people. It's what makes you better than her._

Kim's finger relaxed.

_There's always another solution, Kim. Remember what your father always says. 'Anything's possible…'_

"…for a Possible." Kim finished quietly.

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU SCHMUCK!"

Shego's cry snapped Kim out of her trance. She looked down and saw them rolling across the floor. Her brain kicked into overdrive. She looked down at the gun in her hand, smirked, and threw it over the side of the catwalk. The gun hit the floor and went off with loud pop.

"What the!" Drakken said, looking around. "Who's shooting?"

"For that matter, who here has a gun!" Ron said, from where he was laying on top of Shego. Shego frowned up at him.

"I don't know, but you have exactly until the count of three to GET THE HELL OFF ME!"

Up on the catwalk, Kim pulled out her grapple gun and aimed for Ron's belt. She fired, and as soon as the hook latched onto the belt, she yanked with all her might.

_Sorry about this, Ron. _She thought.

Ron suddenly felt a draft as his pants suddenly disappeared. He shot up and off of Shego. "Hey! No fair!"

Shego propped herself up on her elbows and looked around perplexed. As she turned her head, she spotted something that made her eyes widen in surprise. She got to her feet and dove into the hovercar, hitting the switches that activated it.

"Dr. D! Now would be a good time to split!" she said. She pulled the hovercar into a u-turn and tuned it towards Drakken.

"But we haven't destroyed Kim Possible yet!" Drakken complained.

"I wouldn't worry about that right now." Shego said, grabbing Drakken by his collar and dragging him into the hovercar. She gunned the jets and the two escaped through the hole left behind by the elephants. Up on the catwalk, Kim got to her feet and smiled.

"Yes!" Kim said. "Sitch resolved!" She activated the time travel device on her wrist. _Better get out of here before Ron notices there's two of me running around. _She set the dial for her present and hit the "Activate" button. A glowing blue portal appeared in front of her. She strode confidently into it, feeling outright relieved. As soon as she passed into it, it winked out of existence.

Meanwhile, on the warehouse floor, Ron had located his pants and was putting them on.

"Well, I think that's a record for us in the saving the world thing, don'tcha think, KP?"

There was no response. Ron turned around, looking for Kim.

"KP?"

Kim was slumped against the far wall, lying on the floor. Ron walked over to her. He kneeled down and shook her shoulder.

"Kim? You okay?"

Kim rolled onto her back, and Ron fought to keep his dinner down. He succeeded and cradled Kim's head in his arms.

"Aw, Kim…"


	9. Ripple Effect

**CHAPTER 8: Ripple Effect**

Kim walked down the street towards the Bueno Nacho, feeling better than she had in the last couple of weeks. Ron was saved, the remote destroyed, and best of all, she hadn't had to kill anybody to do it. And the gun was safely lost back in the past.

_And now, lunch!_ Kim thought to herself. She wasn't sure why, but for some reason, time travel made her hungry as hell. She looked down at her pocket. "Hey, Rufus. Want a naco?"

"Naco!" Rufus cheered. Kim smiled and went into the Bueno Nacho.

Ned was manning the counter. Kim strolled up and slapped her hands on it. "Hey, Ned."

Ned looked up and stared at Kim, his jaw dropping open. Kim was looking at the menu board and didn't notice.

"Let's see, let me have two chicken burritos, two chimurritos, a tortada salad, a plate of nachos with extra queso, and a naco. Oh and MegaGrande size all of it, okay? Please and thank you."

Ned continued to stare at her. Kim looked down and gave him a quizzical look.

"Ned? You okay?"

"Um, yeah. Yeah!" Ned snapped out of his stupor, rang up her order, then disappeared into the back to get her food. Kim turned around and scanned the restaurant, smiling when she saw the top of a familiar blond head poking up from the usual booth.

"H-here's your order," Ned said hesitantly, putting the loaded tray on the counter. "A-and have a m-muy bueno day!"

Kim gave him another smile and picked up the tray. "Thanks, Ned!" she said cheerily.

As soon as she turned her back, Ned fainted.

---

Ron idly toyed with a Diablo sauce packet. His Grande sized naco still sat on the tray, untouched. Next to him, Rufus sat forlornly in a tray of nachos. Neither felt like eating. Neither had really felt like doing much of anything since the night at the warehouse. It was only because his mom had insisted he get some fresh air that he had even bothered to leave the house at all.

Without KP there, all the fun had gone right out of everything.

"Is this seat taken?" a female voice asked.

"Yeah, you can sit here," he answered. "We were about to leave anyway."

The newcomer placed a huge tray of food on the table in Ron's field of vision. Ron's eyes widened at the smorgasbord in front of him.

"Are you really planning to eat all that?" he said, looking up. "I mean, I thought I YIYIYIYIYIYIIIIII!" Ron climbed up to the top of the booth as Kim sat down and picked up one of the burritos.

"I know, I know," Kim said. "It's all going to go straight to my hips, but I figure, one or two extra missions this month will work it all off."

"GYAAAAHHHH! ZOMBIE KIM!" Ron cried in response. Kim looked up at him, perplexed.

"Hm?" she said mouth full of burrito. Ron held up a plastic fork and knife and held them out in front of him in a cross.

"BACK! BACK EVIL BRAIN EATING ZOMBIE VERSION OF MY DEAD GIRLFRIEND!" Ron continued to crawl up onto the top of the booth, then fell over the back with a thud.

Kim swallowed then leaned out of the booth. "Ron? Are you okay?"

"Owwww…"

Kim pulled Ron back into the booth. "Ron, calm down." She paused. "Did you just say 'zombie version of my dead girlfriend?'"

"Don't eat me!" Ron cried, cowering. Next to him, Rufus poked his head up out of the nacho tray. He looked at Kim and gasped.

"Zombie!"

No sooner had the cry come out, than the Rufus in Kim's pocket climbed up onto the table. The two naked mole rats stared at each other.

"Zombie Kim and an evil Rufus clone!" Ron screamed.

"Ron, turn it down will you?" She pulled out the Kimmunicator. "Wade? Give me some help here. Ron thinks I'm a zombie and there's two Rufuses on the table."

"KIM!" Wade said, after choking on his soda.

"Why is everybody so surprised that I'm talking to them?" Kim asked.

"Well, um," Wade stammered. "It would be because you're, well…dead."

"Dead?" Kim asked.

"Dead?" her Rufus echoed.

"Zombie!" Ron yelped.

"Dead," Wade answered. "You were killed a couple of weeks ago when you and Ron raided the warehouse where Drakken was housing his genetically engineered cybernetically enhanced battle elephants."

"Wait a second," Kim said, "That can't be right. I mean, I saved Ron from getting killed by Shego, everything should have been fine after that."

"Here, check this out." Wade said. There was a blip of static and a clip from the local news appeared on the Kimmunicator's screen.

"Middleton and the world are in a state of shock tonight as word reaches us that world famous teen hero Kim Possible has been killed. Details are still sketchy, however, sources tell us that while foiling the latest evil scheme of would-be supervillain Dr. Drakken, Kim Possible was shot and killed by person or persons unknown. Detective Roberts of the Middleton Police Department had this to say:"

The shot changed to an image of the police detective.

"We recovered a nine millimeter Browning pistol from the warehouse where the incident occurred," he said, holding up an evidence bag with the gun inside. Kim felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. "Ballistic tests confirm that this was the weapon which killed Miss Possible. We are still working on locating the assailant."

The news anchor returned. "The FBI and Global Justice are working with the Middleton police in tracking down Kim Possible's killer. Anyone with any information is encouraged to come forward."

The clip ended and Wade appeared back on the monitor.

"So you can understand my confusion," he said.

"Confusion?" Ron yelped. "What confusion? Kim's come back as a zombie and is here to eat our brains with a side of queso!"

"Ron!" Kim and Wade said together. Kim looked at Ron.

"No zombies, Ron. Time travel."

"Time travel?" Wade said.

Kim took a deep breath. "You know how Shego showed up at my door and told me how World War III was coming with Middleton as Ground Zero? Well, we went to the warehouse and I managed to destroy the remote but Shego ended up killing Ron and a couple of weeks later…or now, I think…I get a condolence note from Senor Senior, Sr. which inspired me to break into Tempex Technologies and steal their experimental time travel gizmo to travel back to the night of the warehouse, after I got a gun from Big Daddy Brotherson so I could kill Shego to keep her from killing Ron, but I had a total moral crisis when I got the chance to take the shot so I threw the gun away and saved Ron without killing anybody then traveled back to now and now I find out that I'm DEAD!"

Ron and Wade looked at her.

"Yeah, you lost me at the part where you said Shego killed me." Ron said.

"What type of gun was it?" Wade asked. Kim looked uncomfortable.

"A nine millimeter Browning." she admitted. "Let me guess, I'm my own murderer, right?"

"Looks like it." Wade said.

"Wait a second," Ron said, climbing back down into the booth. "If Kim isn't a zombie and she traveled back in time but ended up killing herself in the past, how can she be here now in order to travel back in time in the first place?" He blinked and rubbed his head. "I think I just gave my brain a hernia."

"Near as I can tell, the ripple effect probably hasn't caught up to you yet." Wade replied.

"Ripple effect?" Kim asked.

"It's a common theory regarding changing history." Wade said, "It's like dropping a rock into a still pond, the ripples radiate out from the point of impact. In this case, when you ended up killing yourself, history started changing, but because you jumped ahead in time from that point, you got ahead of the ripple effect."

"So what happens when it catches up to me?" Kim asked.

"Odds are, the current timeline will take precedent."

"Which means?"

Now it was Wade's turn to look uncomfortable. "You'll be replaced by the you that's currently in Middleton Cemetery."

"I'll be…dead?" Kim said.

"For good."

"Uh oh." Kim's Rufus said. Next to him, his double nodded agreement.

"No big thang," Ron said, "You still have the time travel gizmo, right, KP?"

"Yes…?" Kim said, quirking an eyebrow.

"No problem then," Ron said. "We take a quick jump back to the warehouse, snag the gun before it goes off and kills you, jump back here and everything's a-OK."

"We?" Kim said. "Ron, even if I was to consider screwing around with time again, there's no way I'm taking you with me."

"Aww, why not?" Ron whined. "I mean, you'd have backup in case something went wrong. We get the gun and we're gone."

Kim looked at him sadly. "Ron, I can't take that risk. Shego said that once something happens it tends to want to stay happened. If I take you back with me, while the you from two weeks ago might still be saved, the you from now could still end up getting killed." She looked down at the table. "I can't lose you again. I don't think I could stand it."

Ron put a hand on hers. "And when the ripple effect catches up, you're going to be dead for real. You think I can stand losing you again either?"

Kim looked into Ron's eyes. "That's…Oh, Ron."

The two of them hugged across the table. After a minute, the two of them separated.

Kim wiped her eyes. "I still can't do it, Ron. There's already going to be two of me running around there as it is. I don't even know what'll happen if I DO fix everything. I mean, I may end up like Shego, occupying a redundant timeline and fading out of existence anyway. But then, you and the me that would be in the fixed timeline would be together. And you wouldn't remember this."

Ron frowned. "That sucks. I want to help, KP." His face relaxed. "But, I guess you're right. When are you leaving?"

Kim picked the Kimmunicator back up. "How long do I have, Wade?"

"Near as I can figure, three or four hours at best." Wade said. Kim nodded.

"Thanks, Wade." She clicked off and went back to her food. Ron looked at her.

"Um, KP, you sure you have time to finish eating all that?"

Kim looked up at him with an evil smirk. "I'm still starving, and besides, you should eat something too."

"I should?"

"You're going to need the energy. There's something else I want to do before I go erasing this version of myself from reality."

Ron looked apprehensive. "What?"

Kim's smirk turned into a grin. "Just in case this doesn't work, I say we make some new memories in that treehouse."

Ron stared at her for a second…and blushed bright red.

--

About an hour later, Kim and Ron were making the final adjustments to their clothes in the treehouse, and the dual Rufii came out of hiding.

"Wow." Ron said. "That was…"

"Memorable?" Kim asked.

"Yes, memorable all around!" Ron replied. His face fell. "I suppose you're leaving now?"

"Not yet," Kim said. "I still have one more thing I need to do. I have to pick up a gun clip."

"Another gun?" Ron said. "No offense, KP, but haven't we just established that you with a gun is a bad idea?"

"Not another gun, Ron." Kim said. "A gun clip. Specifically, a gun clip filled with blanks."

"Blanks?" Ron said. "I don't get it."

"If I go back to the warehouse and steal the gun from myself, that's going to cause the me on the catwalk to wonder what the hell is going on, and that may end up causing even more problems. But, if I somehow manage to switch the clip with the live ammo with one filled with blanks, everything can still happen as it did, but when the me on the catwalk

throws the gun down to the warehouse floor, there won't be a bullet fired to kill the me who was there in the first place. Get it?"

Ron frowned. "No, not at all."

Kim wasn't sure whether to laugh or sigh in frustration. "If I switch clips, everything happens the way it did, but nobody gets killed."

"Ohhh, I get it now." Ron said. "Wait, we still have a problem. You're dead. I think you showing up and asking to buy a gun clip is going to cause even more questions than normal."

"That's why I'm not getting the gun clip," Kim said. "You are."

"Say again?"

--

Ron came out of Smarty Mart, plastic bag in hand. As he rounded the corner of the building, Kim, wearing a baseball cap, sunglasses, and a dark jacket, grabbed him and pulled him into a gap between the dumpster and the back of the store.

"Did you get them?" she asked.

"Yeah," Ron said, pulling out the contents of the bag. "One clip for a 9mm Browning pistol, one magazine loader, and one box of blanks."

"Perfect. I told you claiming you were with the Drama Club's production of _Ten Little Indians_ would work. " Kim said, taking the clip and the ammo. She sat down on the concrete and held up her hand. "Loader, please."

Ron crouched down next to her and handed her the loader. "Um, KP, I know you have to do this, but I'm really worried. What if this doesn't work?"

Kim looked up. "You know the answer to that."

Ron rubbed the back of his head. "I know, but I mean, what if one of the other you's spots you, won't that be like in those movies? A paragon or whatever?"

"Paradox, Ron." Kim said. "I don't know. That's why I'm going to do my best to avoid that sitch." She looked back down and continued loading the clip with the blanks.

Ron reached over and turned her face back towards him. "Kim, just in case, I want to say…I mean, I think I should tell you…"

Kim put a finger on his lips. "Shh, Ron. I know. And I feel the same about you. This is why I'm trying to fix it. All of it." She snapped the last bullet into the clip and pocketed it. "That's it."

They both stood up. Kim took off the hat, sunglasses and the jacket and handed them to Ron. "Thanks for the loan."

"No big. Oh wait!" he reached into his pockets and pulled out both Rufuses. One was holding a pretzel and offered it to his doppelganger. The two of them began working on breaking the pretzel in half. "You want to take your Rufus with you?"

"Not sure if I should. I mean if I leave him here, things will probably be resolved. But if not..."

"YIPE!"

The two of them looked down as the two Rufuses, finally breaking the pretzel, lost their balance and collided. There was a flash of blue light, a whiff of ozone , and the single Rufus remaining sat up, whiskers smoking.

"Whoa!" he said.

"Rufus!" Ron yelped. Kim pulled out the Kimmunicator.

"Wade, Rufus just touched his other self and suddenly there's only one of him. What's going on?"

Wade punched some keys and the Kimmunicator's green scanner light shone over Rufus.

"As near as I can tell, they merged."

"Merged?" Kim asked.

"I'm showing two separate sets of brainwaves. Each seem to match up with the memories of each individual Rufus."

"Memories, shmemories!" Ron snapped. "Is he all right?"

"As far as I can tell, yes." Wade answered. "But, all the same, Kim, I think you should avoid touching any of your other selves back at the warehouse. There could be some other effects we don't know about yet."

"Side effects!" Ron yelped.

"Put it on simmer, Ron." Kim said, frowning. "If this works, I don't think these versions of us are going to be around long enough for the side effects to surface. How long to do I have until the ripple effect catches me, Wade?"

"Not sure, but you're coming up on the three and half hour mark. If I were you, I'd go now. Good luck, Kim."

"Thanks, Wade." Kim clicked off and pocketed the Kimmunicator. She looked at Ron. "I have to go."

Ron looked at her sadly. "I know."

Kim took a step closer to him. "I'll fix it, Ron. I promise. And then this will all have been like a bad dream."

She leaned in and kissed Ron, softly at first, then more deeply. They held the kiss for a long moment, then Kim separated from Ron, and activated the time travel device on her wrist.

"I'll fix it." Kim said. She stepped into the portal, which winked out shortly afterward. Ron and Rufus stood there, looking at the space where the portal had been.

"Good luck, Kim."

"Aww." Rufus patted Ron on the shoulder. Ron smiled.

"Thanks, buddy."

They turned and started heading for home. Neither of them noticed the rapidly expanding web of cracks in the pavement that radiated from the place where Kim had been sitting.

--

The trip through the temporal tunnel wasn't as bad as before, but Kim still hated the sensation of free falling when she couldn't see the ground rushing towards her. As she fell, she found herself scanning her surroundings.

_That…thing could still be here._

As she looked around, she squinted, trying to force her eyes to look beyond the blue energy barrier that formed the tunnel. Plenty of shadows, but not one that acted as if it was looking back.

_I must have imagined it. _Kim thought. She looked below her and saw the end of the tunnel coming towards her. She straightened out and prepared for her arrival.

She looked upwards, and gasped as she saw the sentient shadow glaring down at her from beyond the tunnel. She saw a pair of dully glowing purple eyes that held nothing but menace..

_…Timebreaker…_

Kim passed into the blinding white light at the end of the tunnel, and she lost track of the shadow.

--

She came to outside the warehouse. The time display on the Tempex device read 9:45.

Kim got to her feet, and pulled out one of her remaining burritos she had pocketed before leaving. She looked the warehouse over as she munched on it.

_Okay, I'm due to show up in about forty-five minutes. Add another half hour for getting the eats at Burger Duke. Need to find a place in there to hide until the other me takes her nap. _

She found the side door she used earlier, picked the lock, slipped inside and relocked the door. She looked around to see what she had to work with. Aside from the elephant pen and the catwalk, there wasn't much else.

She explored for a while, finding a couple of tarp covered crates in one corner, and a bathroom behind another side door. She stopped in the middle of the floor and put her hands on her hips.

"Is it really too much to ask that the temporary evil lair has at least two decent hiding places?" she asked. As she looked around, she heard a clicking sound. She looked behind her towards the side door she had entered from. She quickly looked down at the watch on the Tempex device.

"Oh crap." she whispered. She pulled out the grapple gun and fired into the rafters, retracting quickly and climbing into the shadows. She braced herself and watched as her earlier self entered the warehouse.

Her earlier self looked around, scoping out the warehouse. Kim tensed up as her look-alike glanced up into the rafters, then relaxed as she walked over to the ladder in the far corner. Kim shifted her position as her earlier self climbed up the ladder to the catwalk and settled against the wall.

She bit her lip as the other her pulled out the gun and examined it. She could see the conflict on the other Kim's face.

_How did I EVER think that was the perfect solution?_ she thought. _I must have been crazy._

She heard her other self sigh, and she glanced over, just in time to see her fold her arms and settle back for her nap. Kim stayed in the rafters until she saw her other self's shoulders relax and her breathing became regular.

She pulled the grapple gun from her belt and hooked it to the rafter, then lowered herself down to the warehouse floor. She crossed the floor to the catwalk ladder and climbed up.

When she reached the catwalk, she dropped to all fours and began inching her way slowly along towards her other self. As she got closer, taking care not to cause any major vibrations in the catwalk, her other self stirred and twitched. Kim froze.

"..Ron, duck! Ron…" her other self mumbled in her sleep. Kim held her breath and waited for her other self to return to her resting position. After a few moments, she did and Kim began crawling towards her again.

After a few minutes, she reached her twin and silently cursed. She had climbed up the wrong side of the catwalk. The holster pocket with the gun was on her earlier self's other side.

_No choice then,_ she thought, _I don't know how long I have before Drakken and Shego show up and when they do, this me is going to get a rude awakening. _

She sighed, took a deep breath, then held it and began to slowly climb over her other self, taking care to avoid touching her. When she was about halfway over, her other self moved and kicked out one leg sharply. Kim quickly arched her back and froze, her muscles straining to keep from moving. She held the pose for a full minute, her spine protesting after thirty seconds or so, before she finished climbing over herself.

As soon as she was on the other side of her earlier self, Kim turned around and lay down on her stomach. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the blank loaded clip. She then reached out with her other hand and slowly tugged on the snap on the holster pocket on her other self's pants.

She winced as the snap came open with an audible "click" that seemed to echo throughout the warehouse. She waited for her other self to wake up, but she simply shifted position and kept sleeping. Kim exhaled slowly and opened the flap of the holster pocket. The grip of the gun stuck partially out of the pocket. Kim glanced up at her other self's sleeping, frowning face then carefully reached out and slowly wrapped her fingers around the grip.

She stopped for a moment, waiting for a reaction. Then, when none was forthcoming, she began inching the gun out of the holster pocket. Her earlier self stirred a couple of times, and Kim forced herself to freeze until her movement had stopped before continuing to ease the gun out of the holster pocket.

When the gun finally came free, she let out a sigh of relief, then quickly slapped her free hand over her mouth. Her other self made no sign of having heard her.

Kim scrabbled backwards down the catwalk, then sat up and slid the clip out of the gun, keeping an eye on the other her. She slid the clip filled with the blanks into the gun, checked to make sure the safety was still off, then began crawling back towards her other self.

As she reached her earlier incarnation, she heard the sound of a large truck pulling up outside. Her eyes widened.

_Crap! That must be Drakken and Shego!_

She reached out and slid the gun back into her other self's holster pocket, managed to snap it closed, stood up, and fired her grapple into the rafters. She retracted the grapple cable, allowing herself to be dragged up into the rafters, right as the loading dock door opened.

"All right," came Shego's voice as she stepped into the warehouse. "Get those damn things into the pen, so we can get this latest lame ass plan over with."

Kim watched as the nameless henchmen herded the elephants into the pen. After the last elephant came in, Drakken followed, carrying the TV.

"Out of my way! Get out of my way, dammit!" he cried, shoving one or two henchmen aside, before he dropped the set on his foot.

"OWWWW! SHEGO!"

Kim glanced over to the sleeping her on the catwalk. The other her woke up and peered over the edge of the catwalk at Drakken and Shego. As the events unfolded, Kim looked around, trying to figure out how to get out of the warehouse.

_Can't get out through the side door, Drakken or Shego will spot me. Ditto the loading dock door. Skylight is locked, and won't be unlocked until the original me that started all this gets here. And now that the me with the gun is awake, I have to avoid being seen by her as well. _

Kim frowned as she realized her best bet.

_I'm going to have to wait until all hell breaks loose, then try to get out through the skylight in all the confusion. Fan-freaking-tastic._

She shifted her position in the rafters, and tried to make herself comfortable for the next few hours.

---

As night fell outside, and the time for her original self and Ron to show up came closer, Kim realized she had a crick in her back that was on the verge of excruciating pain. She also realized she was going to have to take a risk.

_I'm going to have to try to shoot for the skylight sometime between when Ron releases the elephants and the time he uses my grapple to get away from them, and hope to God that neither of my other selves notices me._

She reached down and pulled out the grapple, holding it at the ready for when the skylight opened.

After another half hour, the skylight opened, and Kim's original self and Ron slid into the warehouse. Kim took aim at the edge of the skylight, and waited for Ron to cut the elephants loose. She glanced down at her gun wielding self, making sure she wasn't looking in the direction of the rafters.

She heard the peanuts scatter across the floor and looked down, just in time to see Ron get purchase on Rufus and trip over the naked mole rat, releasing the elephants. Ron screamed and began running.

Kim quickly turned her gaze to the skylight, aimed, and fired the grapple. As soon as she felt it grip the side of the skylight, she thumbed the setting to "Retract" and pulled the trigger all the way down. The cable retracted sharply pulling Kim from the rafters and up to the skylight. As she approached, she ignored the pain in her back and flipped out of the skylight and onto the roof.

Once she was on the roof, she kneeled down and peered over to watch the events unfold. She saw her gun wielding self pull the gun on Shego, waiver as she fought with her morals, then toss the gun aside.

_Here goes, _Kim thought, leaning further over so she could see how things turned out.

--

"GET OFF OF ME, YOU SCHMUCK!"

Shego's cry snapped Kim out of her trance. She looked down and saw them rolling across the floor. Her brain kicked into overdrive. She looked down at the gun in her hand, smirked, and threw it over the side of the catwalk. The gun hit the floor and went off with loud pop.

"What the!" Drakken said, looking around. "Who's shooting?"

"For that matter, who here has a gun!" Ron said, from where he was laying on top of Shego. Shego frowned up at him.

"I don't know, but you have exactly until the count of three to GET THE HELL OFF ME!"

Up on the catwalk, Kim pulled out her grapple gun and aimed for Ron's belt. She fired, and as soon as the hook latched onto the belt, she yanked with all her might.

_Sorry about this, Ron. _She thought.

Ron suddenly felt a draft as his pants suddenly disappeared. He shot up and off of Shego. "Hey! No fair!"

Shego propped herself up on her elbows and looked around perplexed. She didn't know who had the gun, but the idea that someone else was in the warehouse and packing heat made her decidedly nervous.

_The hell with this, _she thought. _Time to go. _She dove into the hovercar, activated it and turned it towards Drakken.

"Yo, Dr. D! Were outta here!"

"No! We have her at our mercy!" Drakken snarled. He turned back to gloat, only to find Kim standing in front of him. Behind her on the wall was an outline of her form done in melted superglue.

"Who was at WHO'S mercy?" she asked, quirking one eyebrow.

Drakken, turned back in Shego's direction. "Shego! Time to go!"

Shego piloted the hovercar over to Drakken, who jumped in. Shego wrenched the controls and flew the hovercar out of the hole the elephants had left in the wall. As they departed, Drakken turned and glared at Kim and Ron.

"You think you're all that, Kim Possible, but you're NOT!"

The hovercar disappeared into the night.

Up on the catwalk, the second Kim got to her feet and smiled.

"Yes!" Kim said. "Sitch resolved!" She activated the time travel device on her wrist. _Better get out of here before Ron notices there's two of me running around. _She set the dial for her present and hit the "Activate" button. A glowing blue portal appeared in front of her. She strode confidently into it, feeling outright relieved. As soon as she passed into it, it winked out of existence.

Meanwhile, on the warehouse floor, Ron had located his pants and was putting them on.

"Well, I think that's a record for us in the saving the world thing, don'tcha think, KP?"

There was no reply. Ron looked around. "KP?"

Kim was staring at the hole in the wall, lost in thought. Ron walked up to her and waved a hand in front of her face.

"Kim? Kim Possib-le? Ground Control to Major Kim?"

"Huh?" Kim said, shaking her head briefly. "Oh. Sorry, Ron. Zoned out there for a second."

"You okay?" Ron asked. Kim put a hand to her head.

"Yeah…yeah, I'm okay." she said, "Just a little…never mind. Let's go home. I think I need to lie down."

"Yeah, you look beat." Ron said. The two of them walked out the hole in the wall.

Up on the roof of the warehouse, Kim smiled and got to her feet. "Sitch now DEFINITELY resolved!" she said. She turned to the time travel device on her wrist and started setting it to return to her current time.

No sooner had she begun setting the device, then there was a flash of green light and something grabbed the back of her shirt and jerked her rapidly backwards. Kim hit the roof with a grunt and looked up. Her eyes widened as she recognized who had yanked on her.

"You just couldn't take my advice, could you, Princess?" Shego said, staring down at her.

"Shego?" Kim said, "How? You should have faded out of existence!"

"Oh, were gonna talk about that," Shego answered. She thumbed a button on her own time travel device and a glowing green portal appeared. Shego put the device back in the pouch on her belt. She then reached down, grabbed the front of Kim's shirt and pulled her close.

"We're gonna have a LONG talk about that…" Shego said in a low menacing voice. Her free hand began to glow with her bioplasmic energy field. However, instead of stopping at her wrists, it grew to engulf her entire forearm. Kim swallowed and looked up at Shego's face.

She felt the blood rush from her face as Shego's eyes began to glow the same bright green, washing out her iris and pupils completely. Shego stood up, hauling Kim off her feet.

"…right after I KICK…YOUR…ASS!" With a growl of rage, Shego hurled Kim into the green time portal and dove in right after her. As soon as she vanished into the green light, the portal winked out of existence.


	10. Cracks

**CHAPTER 9: Cracks**

SOMEWHERE IN TIME

Kim threw up an arm and blocked Shego's flaring fist. She shoved it down and forced herself to look into her enemy's glowing eyes.

"Shego! Knock it off! It's fixed!" she screamed as they hurtled through the green temporal tunnel. Shego screamed back at her and brought down her other fist. Kim blocked it as well.

"Fixed? FIXED?!" Shego ranted. "I was doing just fine when I left you. I started fading out of existence, I figured that things were finally going to be okay. Imagine my surprise when, not only did I fade back into existence, but I had a series of memories I didn't have before!"

Shego pushed off of Kim, somersaulted in mid air and planted both of her feet in Kim's chest. Kim sailed further down the tunnel, trying to right herself. Shego stretched out like a skydiver and shot towards her. As she got close, she flared up again and raised a fist.

"Such as you beating the shit out of me and dying in a Swiss hospital!" She brought her fist down, sending Kim hurling further down the tunnel, into the glowing white light at the end of it.. Shego stretched out again and followed her into the light.

MIDDLETON, USA, JULY 18, 1903

"Johnathan, honestly," Miriam "Mim" Possible said, "I really don't understand your fascination with that story."

"Just you watch, Mim," Johnathan Stoppable said, looking up from the book he was reading. "In a hundred years or so, they will call this book a classic."

"It's just a conglomeration of pseudo-scientific drivel." Mim replied, taking the copy of _The Time Machine_ from her policeman friend. "Don't misunderstand me, Mr. Wells is a fine writer, but really, the concept of traveling through time is just patently…"

She trailed off as a glowing green portal appeared in front of them and two young women fell out, one in a form fitting green and black outfit, the other who was in a down right scandalous outfit that allowed them to see her midriff. Mim's eyebrows shot up as she realized the girl in the alarmingly short black shirt bore an uncanny resemblance to herself.

Her eyes also widened when the black haired girl in the green and black raised a hand, which burst into green flame, along with her eyes.

"John, quick! We have to do something." she said. "They're going to kill each other!"

--

"Shego, stop!" Kim said, trying to keep from getting hit by the flames. She dodged to the side as Shego growled again and brought her other hand down, claws extended. Shego's fingers embedded themselves in the cobblestone street. Kim rolled off to the side and got to her feet, holding her hands in a defensive position.

Shego glared at her, snarled and pivoted herself on her wrists, swinging her legs around and knocking Kim's feet out from under her. Kim yelped in surprise as she fell, and landed back on the street, banging her head on the cobblestones. Green stars exploded in Kim's vision, which were quickly overtaken by darkness.

Shego extracted her hand from the street, stood up and glared down at Kim. She deflared, the green glow disappearing form her eyes and reached down to grab Kim.

"I'll thank you to keep your hands off of her, Miss." came a voice. Shego turned and stared at the two people who bore an uncanny resemblance to Possible and Stoppable. True, the Stoppable look-alike had a seriously huge walrus mustache, and the Possible clone was wearing a dress that had to be downright sweltering in the summer sun, but it was enough to cause Shego to look at them for a few seconds.

The Stoppable clone was holding an old fashioned pistol and holding it on her. He looked fairly nervous. The tip of the barrel was shaking.

"Now," he said. "I am Detective Johnathan Stoppable of the Middleton Police Department, and you, Miss, are under arrest. Kindly step away from the young lady, place your hands in the air and avoid causing those green flames of yours to reappear."

Shego grinned and fought to suppress a laugh. "You're a COP? One of the buffoon's ancestors was a cop. Oh, this is rich." She looked at the Possible copy. "What about you? Wait, let me guess, a Sherlock Holmes-style private eye, right?"

"Not that it's any of your business," said the Possible, "My name is Miriam Possible and I happen to be a reporter for the Examiner. And you are?"

"Sorry," Shego replied, "I don't talk to the press. Now, if you'll excuse me, the princess here and I have some unfinished business." She reached down to pick up Kim, but stopped short when she heard the sound of Stoppable's pistol being cocked. She glanced up and saw that the barrel wasn't shaking anymore.

"I don't know who you are," Stoppable said, "And to be honest, you frighten me in a way I'm not certain I like, but I will not allow you to hurt that girl anymore. Step away. Now."

Shego's grin faded and her usual frown returned. "Fine." She reached down, undid the strap of Kim's time travel device and stood up. "When she wakes up, tell her that if she wants to go home, she's going to have to find me first."

Shego threw up a hand, channeled a ball of bioplasma and threw it at Stoppable and Possible. The two of them dove away from each other as the ball hit and exploded with a flash of green light. When their vision cleared, the unconscious girl was still lying on the street, and the mysterious green woman was gone.

--

Kim reluctantly opened her eyes and winced as light came streaming into her vision. As her eyes adjusted, she saw her own face looking down at her. She groaned and rolled over onto her side.

"This better not be that dream I had with the wetsuit, the bucket of whipped cream, and the mirror on the ceiling." She muttered.

"Why exactly would one want a mirror on their bedroom ceiling?" her reflection asked.

Kim's eyes snapped open and she sat up sharply. She was in an elegant brass bed in an ornately fashioned living room. Sitting next to her was a woman she recognized from her family photo album.

"Aunt Mim?" she asked.

"Aunt?" Mim quirked an eyebrow. "I'm not anyone's aunt. At least not yet. My brother just got engaged last month. Who are you?"

Kim shook her head, trying to clear the haze in her brain. "You're not going to believe me."

"Considering I saw you and the woman in the green and black fall out of a glowing green hole that appeared in the middle of the street, I would say my threshold for the unbelievable has been considerably broadened." Mim replied.

Kim took a deep breath. "My name is Kim Possible. I'm your great-great-grandniece. I came here from about a hundred years from now. I didn't plan on it, and I really don't want to make any more mistakes with history. So, thanks for the help, but I really shouldn't say anymore. I'll be going—"

Kim's voice trailed off as she realized her wrist was bare. She looked up at Mim. "Where is it?"

Mim frowned. "The device on your wrist? The other woman took it."

"And you let her?!" Kim yelped. She threw the covers off of her and got out of the bed. "She's going to strand me here, if she hasn't already. I can't…" Kim's voice trailed off again as her stomach cramped up with hunger. She fell to her knees and doubled over. Mim dropped down next to her.

"Are you all right?" the older Possible asked. Kim nodded.

"I'm fine, I'm just starving. Time travel seems to make you really hungry for some reason."

"Right. Then clearly I need to feed you. And while we're eating, you can tell me about the woman in green. And don't worry, I don't think she's left you behind."

Kim looked at her aunt. "How do you know?"

"She told Johnathan and me that if you wanted to go home, you were going to have to find her first. If what you're telling me is true, and you're both time travelers, I don't think she'd leave you stranded and tell you to come find her."

"Good point." Kim said, getting to her feet. "Okay, food first, then I'll tell you about Shego."

"Shego?" Mim said, standing up herself. "What sort of name is that?"

"Couldn't tell you." Kim answered. She found her shoes under the bed and slipped them on. "Ready to go."

"Not dressed like that, you aren't." Mim replied, walking to her closet. "I don't know what sort of loose morals people have in the early 21st century, but if you go out in those clothes, you're sure to garner some unwanted attention. I believe you would like to be able to eat in peace, yes?"

"That would be nice." Kim said. "I guess I could wear a dress for a couple of hours."

Mim smirked as she pulled a selection of items from her wardrobe. "I think you're going to get an impromptu education in the finer details of 1900s ladies' fashion."

Kim looks at the collection of skirts, vests, blouses, petticoats, and underwear, then up at her aunt.

"Oh boy."

--

Approximately forty-five minutes later, John Stoppable looked up from his book to see Mim coming down the stairs of the boarding house. He pocketed the volume and stood up.

Mim was smiling as she came down. She walked over to John and looked back up the stairs.

"I know that smile." John said. "That's the smile that says you've done something that has annoyed somebody else."

Mim didn't reply, but nodded din the direction of the staircase. The girl they had saved earlier was coming down, wearing one of Mim's tweed dresses. She walked slowly, clearly trying to adjust herself to the weight of the skirts and petticoats she was wearing. Aside form the fact that her hair was done up in a twist, as opposed to a bun, John would have sworn Mim had suddenly received a twin sister.

The girl reached the bottom of the stairs. "How do women walk with all this weight? I feel like I'm going to fall over."

"You get used to it." Mim replied. "John, this is Kim. She's my great-great-grandniece from a hundred years from now, and she's starving. Could I impose on you to buy us dinner?"

"Of course." He turned to Kim. "A pleasure to meet you, Miss Possible. I'm Johnathan Stoppable."

"You can call me Kim." Kim replied. "Believe it or not, I'm currently dating your descendant. I'm not sure exactly how he's related to you, but he looks an awful lot like you."

"Then he's a very lucky young man." John replied. " And please, fell free to call me John. Now then, let's see about getting you fed."

--

John and Mim stared in shock as Kim finished off a second steak and politely asked the waiter for another potato. The waiter never lost his composure and said he would be right back. The detective and the reporter looked at each other, then back at Kim.

"Um, Kim," Mim said. "You might want to consider slowing down. It's…not healthy to eat so much in one sitting."

Kim finished draining her water glass, then looked at her aunt. "Oh, jeez. I'm sorry. That must have been really rude of me."

John cleared his throat and looked around the restaurant uncomfortably. Mim leaned over and whispered in Kim's ear.

"It's not necessarily rudeness. When a woman eats that much food in one sitting so quickly," she began, "people tend to read it as her having equally large appetites in…other areas."

"Other areas?" Kim whispered back. Mim nodded and glanced over at a couple at another table.

"OTHER areas." she repeated. Kim looked over at the couple, then back at Mim, confused.

Then her brain figured out what her aunt was hinting at and she turned a bright red.

"Oh." She said quietly. The waiter was passing by, and she put out a hand. "Excuse me. I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't think I'd like that potato any more. I hope it's not too much of an inconvenience."

"Not at all, Miss." Said the waiter, before heading back to the kitchen.

--

A little while later, the three of them walked out of the restaurant. Kim was still fairly embarrassed.

"I'm so sorry. I forgot that things are a lot more stringent here than back in my time." She said.

"It's all right." Mim replied. "How were you to know? But, I would like to know more about that young woman in the green. Shego, did you say her name was?"

Kim nodded. "She's the hired henchwoman for a man named Dr. Drakken. He's a mad scientist. Tries to take over the world. Shego helps him."

"It would seem to me she'd be quite capable of taking over the world on her own," John said. "Especially with that green energy she can control and since she can apparently time travel at will."

Kim stopped short, her eyes glazing over slightly. "Yes..she di—could." She shook her head, then looked at them. "I'm sorry, what was I saying?"

"We were talking about Shego." Mim replied. "So, why exactly were the two of your fighting, and more importantly, why come to this period of history?"

Kim sighed. "It's a long story. The short version is, this particular Shego traveled back from even further up the timeline to ask me to stop something bad that was going to happen, I didn't listen to her advice, and as a result I made things even worse. So, she showed up just when I thought everything was fixed to kick my butt for causing her to come back into existence."

Mim and Ron looked at each other, then at Kim, confusion clearly etched on their faces.

"I think we'd better hear the long version." Mim said. "And I think it would be best if we walk back to the boarding house so we can hear all of it."

As the three of them walked back to Mim's boarding house, Kim related the entire convoluted story, starting from Shego's initial visit and fridge raiding to the heist at Tempex Technologies, to her repeated visits to the warehouse, finishing up with her unexpected visit from Shego on the roof.

"Hm." Mim said, mulling over the tale. "While I can understand your desire to fix things, I can't really approve of your stealing that device. Nor of your decision to kill Shego."

"I know," Kim said. "Stupid ideas, but they were the only things I could think of at the time. As for why were ended up here, I have no idea. I think she just picked a time at random to get us both away from that warehouse."

"Makes sense, Mim." John said, holding up his copy of _The Time Machine_. "Judging from what Kim has told us, and from the theories in this book, that particular span of time must be wearing rather thin. I doubt Shego would want to risk trying anything during that timeframe."

"But why even drag them both BACKWARD in time?" Mim asked. "If anything, you would think she'd bring them both forward to Kim's present. That way there'd be no chance of changing the present any more than it already has been."

"Shego tends to run off her anger. She doesn't always think things through, especially when she's focused on hurting me." Kim said.

"Maybe, but I—" Mim trailed off as they rounded the corner and saw a police wagon and several uniformed officers surrounding the boarding house. The three of them picked up the pace and hurried to the scene.

A large man dressed in a brown suit and matching bowler hat was barking orders to a couple of the uniformed police. The two officers saluted and walked off.

"Chief Barkin?" John said as they approached. "What happened?"

"Ah, Detective Stoppable." Chief Barkin said, "Excellent response time. I just sent a man around to fetch you."

He paused as he saw that John wasn't alone. "I see the Examiner couldn't wait for the official report yet again, Miss Possible." Barkin said, glaring at Mim.

"Hardly, Chief Barkin," Mim replied. "I happen to live here."

"Do you?" Barkin said. "Then maybe you can tell me whether or not you noticed any problems with the structural integrity of the house."

"What exactly happened, Chief Barkin?" Kim asked. Barkin looked over at her, then over to Mim, and back to Kim.

"I didn't know you had a twin sister, Miss Possible."

"I'm not.." Kim began but Mim cut her off.

"We hear that quite a bit. This is my cousin Kimberly, she just arrived this afternoon from Denver. John—Detective Stoppable was with us showing her the city."

"Two nosy Possibles. Lovely." Barkin muttered. "All right, as far as we can tell, the floor gave way underneath one of the second floor bedrooms. All the furniture crashed into the dining room."

"Was anyone hurt?" Mim asked.

"Fortunately, dinner had finished about a half and hour prior to the incident, everyone was either in the sitting room, the kitchen, or in their own rooms. The person renting that bedroom was apparently out at the time."

"Mim," John said, frowning. "Isn't your bedroom over the dining room?"

"Miriam!" came a new voice. The four of them looked to see a middle aged woman in a severe black dress coming towards them. Her hair was a bit disheveled and she looked a little dazed. Mim walked over to her.

"Mrs. Wilcox!" she said. "Are you all right? I just found out what happened."

"I'm fine, dear. But, I'm afraid it was your room that the floor gave way in. All your things are in the dining room. I managed to salvage a few clothes for you, but everything else..."

"That's fine, Mrs. Wilcox, just as long as no one got hurt." Mim replied.

"Chief," John said, turning back to Barkin as Mim comforted her landlady. "Would it be all right if Mim and her cousin went inside to try to retrieve some of their belongings? I can escort them to a hotel where they can stay until Mim finds a new place to live."

The chief frowned, then sighed. "I suppose that would be all right. Everything seems to have stabilized. But I want you back here once the ladies are settled. I want to find out just why a sturdy boarding house like this would have a bedroom floor spontaneously collapse."

"Yes, sir." John said. He walked back to Kim. "The Chief is going to let you and Mim go in to get your things." He leaned closer to her and lowered his voice. "It would probably be a good idea to get anything that may indicate a certain someone doesn't normally dress the way everyone else does out of the wreckage before someone starts asking questions."

"Good idea." Kim said. She paused for a minute and gave John a quick peck on the cheek. "Thanks, John."

John blushed and rubbed his cheek. "Um..it was nothing, really."

"Why, Johanthan Stoppable, are you trying to make time with my grandniece?" Mim said, strolling up to them with a mischievous grin on her face. "You cradle robber."

John stammered a few moments. "No! Mim! Nothing of the sort. I was just—I simply—"

"Relax, John." Kim said. "I won't hold it against you. Come on, Mim. Let's get our stuff."

The two Possibles left a red faced and embarrassed John Stoppable standing in the street, as they went to sift through the wreckage of Mim's bedroom.

--

"It makes no sense." Mim said, holding up a remnant of her brass bed. "Mrs. Wilcox bought this bed last year when the one originally in my room wore out."

The shaft of brass she was holding was tarnished and cracked in several places. One end of the shaft was crumbled and rusty. Every time Mim tapped it on her hand, flakes of brass fell to the carpet of the hotel room she and Kim had checked into.

Kim finished putting on her own shoes and dropped the skirt back over her feet. "There, at least now I won't feel like I'm on the verge of falling flat on my face."

"Kim, this is serious." Mim said sternly. " How can a more or less brand new bed suddenly collapse into a pile of rust? And how could a sturdy hardwood floor just collapse when there was nothing wrong with it?"

"I don't know," Kim replied. "But I think it might have to do with me being here. We need to find Shego so I can get the Tempex device back from her and get out of here before things get any worse."

Mim nodded. "Agreed. The longer you stay, the more chance there is of you inadvertently altering history. Any ideas where we should start looking?"

"I'm not going to look for her." Kim said. "I'm going to make her come to me. Does the Examiner sell space for personal advertisements?"

Mim nodded, perplexed.

--

It didn't take long. The taunting ad had gone out in the evening edition of the Examiner. The editor had given Kim an odd look after initially reading it, but Kim had assured him the person she wanted to contact would understand it. The editor had shrugged and began setting the type.

And now, the clock on City Hall had begun to chime nine o'clock. Kim was waiting at the fountain in front of the municipal building. She paced back and forth, the skirts of her dress rustling.

"Oooh, cute dress, Kimmie." came the familiar mocking voice. "Love the Marion the Librarian look."

Kim turned and saw Shego standing on top of the statue that surmounted the fountain. She frowned. "Give me back the Tempex device."

"Oh this?" Shego said, holding the item up by one of the wrist straps. She grinned. "Make me."

Kim's frowned deepened and she took a running leap at the top of the fountain. Shego dodged her easily and landed on the rim, while Kim took her place on the statue. Shego's smarmy grin returned.

"Not very flexible with the skirts on are you?" she said.

"Give me the device, Shego!" Kim demanded. "Something weird is happening. I need to get out of this time. We both do!"

"Oh sure, no problem." Shego said. "But not until I teach you a lesson about what happens when you don't listen to me!"

Shego strapped the Tempex device to her wrist and flared up, leaping at Kim. Kim dove to the side as Shego took a swipe at her, ripping the tweed skirt. Kim handsprung off the rim of the fountain and onto the ground. She reached down and ripped the dress the rest of the way off, revealing her mission clothes.

"You were saying?" Kim said, grinning. Shego snarled and dove back towards Kim. The two collided and fell onto the ground. Kim grabbed Shego's forearms, trying to avoid getting hit by her flaming hands. Shego reared her head back and slammed it into Kim's forehead, causing the teen hero to cry out in pain.

Kim fought through the pain and brought a knee up into Shego's stomach. Shego huffed and winced as the breath was forced out of her lungs. Kim applied additional force and threw Shego off of her.

Shego caught her breath and turned her fall into a somersault, landing on one knee a few feet behind Kim. Kim herself quickly got to her feet and turned to face her archenemy.

"Shego, stop it. This isn't solving anything." Kim said, "I screwed up, all right? I should have listened to you. But now, we really have to go!"

Shego got to her feet and turned towards Kim. "Oh, no. You think you can just say that you're sorry and expect me to let you go tripping through the timestream? I know you, Princess, you can't leave anything alone. You'll use it again, and again, trying to fix everything that goes wrong in your life or for anyone you happen to have a soft spot for."

"I would not." Kim said.

"What about Stoppable?" Shego replied. "The last thing I remember before fading out was a trace memory of me accidentally killing him. I can only assume you decided to pull this little time travel stunt to fix that."

"Call me crazy, but having Ron die to prevent World War Three didn't seem fair to me."

Shego's eyes flared green briefly. "FAIR?! When are you gonna get it through that cheerleading addled brain of yours? LIFE isn't fair, and neither is the universe!"

Shego put a hand over her eyes and rubbed them. "I told you before, you go messing around with time too much and you won't like the result. I tried fixing it so no one got hurt and nobody died. It didn't work. It stopped the war, but too many of the wrong people died in the process. I had to go through hell just to get things back to normal."

She put her hand down and looked at Kim. For the first time,. Shego didn't look angry. She looked sad and tired.

"It's the basic law of nature, Kim." She said, quietly. "Nothing comes without a price. And if you mess around with time, somebody, somehow, some way, is going to have to clean up the mess."

Kim was tempted to let down her guard, but something in the back of her mind told her this would be a bad idea.

"So," Shego said. "since you made the mess, I guess I'm going to have to be the one to clean it up!"

Shego leaped into the air, hands blazing with green bioplasma. Kim stepped back and into a roundhouse kick which caught Shego across the face. Shego flew back and hit the rim of the fountain. The fountain crumbled under the impact, sending water pouring out onto the street.

Shego shook her head and sat up, flinging her soaked hair out of her eyes. She grabbed a chunk of the fountain. Her eyes widened as it crumbled to dust as soon as she picked it up. She looked over at Kim, then down at her adversary's feet. Kim looked down and her own eyes widened.

There were cracks in the street and they were widening out rapidly form where they started.

Right under Kim's feet.

"Oh shit." Shego said in a small voice. She jumped to her feet and pulled out her time travel cube from the pouch on her belt. "That's it, we're screwed. Good luck, Princess, you're going to need it."

Shego tapped on the controls on the cube and the green time portal opened. She turned to enter the portal, and was knocked to the ground by Mim.

Mim reached down and unstrapped the Tempex device from Shego's wrist. "And THAT is for making my niece's life a living hell." She turned back to Kim. "And NEXT time, don't assume that just because your enemy is from your time that you're the only one who is qualified to deal with her."

"Oh for God's sake," Shego said, getting to one knee. "Is EVERY Possible this much of a pain in the ass?" She kicked out her leg in an extended foot sweep, knocking Mim to the ground.

"Mim!" Kim cried, dashing over the help her aunt. Behind them, Shego got to her feet and dove into the portal. The two Possibles turned as they watched her go. Kim looked back at Mim.

"I have to go before the portal closes. Thanks for everything."

Mim nodded. "It's been interesting. Go, quick before she causes any more problems."

Kim nodded back and dashed to the portal, then turned back to Mim. "Oh, and one more thing, when the World's Fair comes, make sure you check the taco stand before you decide to leave town!"

"Taco stand?" Mim asked, but Kim had already entered the portal. There was green flash, and the portal winked out. Mim dusted herself off and huffed an errant strand of hair out of her face.

As she turned to head back to her hotel room, she heard a cracking sound. She frowned and turned around. The web of cracks in the ground were growing, slowly at first, then with increasing speed. Mim stared in horror as the cracks spread from the ground to the surrounding buildings, then, astonishingly, spread from the surfaces of the building to the sky itself. The cracks grew, and sprouted new cracks, until everything in Mim's field of vision was cracked and broken.

She screamed as the entire structure of reality gave away and began spiraling into the darkness.

--

Meanwhile, in the time portal, Kim forced herself faster, trying to catch up with Shego. As she sped along, she saw Shego ahead of her.

"Shego!" she yelled. Shego looked behind her, and her eyes widened.

"Get the hell away from me, you walking entropy magnet!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Kim said.

"You didn't see the cracks?" Shego replied. "Where do you think they're coming from? You screwed everything up, Princess. So the best thing I can do is get the hell away from you. "

"What happened to kicking my ass?" Kim said, grinning.

Shego rolled her eyes. "God, you really don't get it. I don't care what you do now. I'm going somewhen nice and sunny and try to enjoy what's left of my life, thanks. Just get the hell away from me!"

Kim frowned, suspicious. She raised her wrist and began setting the Tempex device for her present. "Okay then, I guess I'll just set this thing to take me home then."

"NO!" Shego screamed. She backflipped, cut the distance between her and Kim, and grabbed Kim's wrist.

Unfortunately, she grabbed it in such a way that the Tempex device was activated.

"SHIT!" Shego screamed. The Tempex device began glowing blue, but no sooner had the temporal field generated, than it reacted with the green temporal tunnel. Kim and Shego stared as the two fields interacted then exploded with a blinding flash.

Just before Kim's vision washed out with the light, she saw a pair of glowing purple eyes glaring down at her.

--

"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!"

Kim groaned and opened her eyes. She sat up and shook her head. She looked at her surroundings, and gasped.

She was looking at the Middleton from her nightmare. The buildings were rubble. The sky was a dirty orange. Cars were on fire.

Kim blinked and looked closer. The cars were on fire, but the flames weren't moving. There were collapsing buildings, but the rubble was hanging in the air. It was as if some one had pressed the "pause" button on the world.

She shook her head again. "This has to be another nightmare."

"Not a nightmare," came a voice from behind her. "A crack. Reality crack."

Kim looked behind her, and fought to keep her jaw from dropping.

Behind her, soot stained, hollow-eyed, smeared with dirt and dried blood, and dressed in the remnants of the Middleton High cheerleader uniform, was another Kim Possible.


	11. Cassandra's Punishment

**CHAPTER 10: Cassandra's Punishment**  


Kim stared at the soot streaked clone in front of her. The other Kim was peering around sharply, like a meerkat looking for danger.

"Gotta go." The other Kim said. She began . "Gotta go now. C'mon. C'monc'monc'mon."

"Wait a second." Kim said, as she got to her feet. The other Kim shook her head.

"No seconds. No minutes. No hours. No days." She chattered. "No time. No time to waste. No time to wait. No time." She began pulling on Kim's hand again. "See Kimberly. Kimberly can help. C'mon. Before Shego comes. Before IT comes. C'mon!"

"Okay, okay, I'm coming." Kim frowned as the other Kim led her over the rubble in the street and back towards the residential section of Middleton.

--

Shego stood on the top of Middleton City Hall, looking at the frozen fire that was engulfing the west wing. Her expression was dark and cold.

_Damn her._ She thought. _This is all her fault._

She just couldn't have left it alone, could she? Couldn't have just accepted that to save the rest of humanity, her little boytoy was going to have to die. No, not Little Miss Perfect. And now, Shego was stuck.

Stuck in another god damned reality crack.

She had been stuck in this crack before. Back when she had tried to fix things herself. It hadn't worked, and something had initially gone wrong with the time travel device she'd built. The next thing she knew, she was stuck here. Along with the Kim Possible who had actually survived the nuclear blast.

She hadn't told the Kim who had caused all this mess about her survival. Mostly because it was irrelevant to what had to be done, but also because the Kim from the original time line where Middleton got nuked had died from radiation poisoning a couple of weeks later.

But when Shego had originally tried to fix things, that Kim had ended up in this reality crack, and when Shego's time travel device fritzed out, Shego had joined her.

And since time didn't pass here in any rational sense of the word, Shego had no idea how long she had spent here. Nothing moved unless you got close enough to move it yourself. You didn't age. You never felt hungry or tired. Hell, you didn't even need to use the bathroom while you were here.

Shego's best guess was that reality cracks were what happened when too many redundant time lines ended up in the same space. Bits and pieces ended up there, like assorted debris on a beach after a shipwreck. And the usual catalyst indicating someone was about to take an unexpected trip to one was the emergence of cracks under your feet in whatever time zone you were in.

Getting out before had been no picnic, and she really didn't want to make that trip again. She opened the pouch on her belt and made sure her time travel device was in there. She pulled it out and prodded the setting buttons. The device let out a few half hearted beeps then the lights went out.

_The hard way then._ Shego thought, putting the device back in the pouch. _But first, make sure the Princess spends a little "quality time" here in the crack._

--

Kim had lost track of herself. She glanced around, looking for the Kim in the cheerleader outfit. She had led her back into the residential areas of Middleton, and Kim figured they were heading back to her house.

"Uh…Kim?" she said. There was no answer. She frowned and decided to yell. "Kim? Kim! Where are you?"

"Kimmie!" came an echo of her voice. Kim looked around and saw the other Kim waving to her from down the street. Kim picked up her pace and soon caught up with the other her.

"Shhh!" the cheerleader said. She looked around sharply, then lowered her voice. "Not Kim. Kimmie. I'm Kimmie, you're Kim. We're seeing Kimberly. C'mon. Don't yell. It listens. C'mon."

"What listens?" Kim asked. Kimmie raised a finger to her lips and shushed her.

"Kimberly knows. She'll tell you. C'mon." Kimmie looked around sharply, then motioned for Kim to follow her into the backyard of a nearby house.

Fifteen minutes later, they emerged from a stand of trees and into the driveway of the Possible home. Kimmie looked around sharply again then dashed for the front door. She opened it and motioned for Kim to follow. Kim quickly ran up to the front door and inside. Kimmie closed the door behind them and locked it.

"I don't remember there being seven locks on that door before." Kim said.

"Considering there's some seriously weird crap out there, it took me forever to convince her that seventeen was too many." came Kim's voice from behind her. Kim turned around to see another her coming down the stairs. This one, however, was dressed in combat boots, black fatigues and what looked like some sort of padded armor. The new Kim's expression was friendly enough but she looked tired and not just a little paranoid.

The new Kim waved a hand. "Hi, I'm Kimberly."

"Hey, I'm, um, Kim…I guess." Kim said, raising her own in response. "Um, I hate to seem rude but, what the hell is going on here?"

Kimberly nodded. "No big. I know the feeling. Let's go into the kitchen. I'd offer food, but most of it won't come out of the fridge, and to be honest, we don't seem to need to eat. Kimmie, get away from the window. Go watch a movie or something, while I get Kim caught up, okay?"

"'Kay." Kimmie said, wandering off into the living room. After a minute, sounds of a kid's movie could be heard.

"Come on." Kimberly said, leading Kim into the kitchen. "Have a seat. We've got a lot of ground to cover."

--

"So," Kimberly said as she and Kim sat down at the kitchen table. "What do you want to know first?"

"Where are we?" Kim said. "It looks like Middleton, but why is it on fire?"

Kimberly nodded. "According to Kimmie, she was fighting Drakken, Shego, the Seniors, Monkey Fist and Killigan when Drakken set off a nuke that was aimed for the town. While the nuke was en route, she jumped to the gym floor and Ron threw her into the school's fall out shelter but went back to get more people. He didn't come back. She says she remembers wandering around the aftermath when she suddenly blacked out and woke up in the middle of what looked like just after the bomb hit. SO, as near as we can figure, this IS Middleton, but frozen in time, somehow."

"And you?" Kim asked. "What's with the paramilitary look?"

Kimberly frowned. "Let me ask you something first. Ever had odd memories? Thought for some reason Ron had moved to Norway? Or better yet, has Ron ever said anything about lamb and cabbage stew? Or meatcakes?"

Kim blinked. "Well, at the beginning of our Junior year, we were walking home on the first day of school and he said he still hated meatcakes, whatever those are, but had no clue why he said that."

"That was because of me." Kimberly replied. "I'm from a redundant time line. Basically, Drakken, Killigan and Monkey Fist used a magic monkey idol to mess around with time in an attempt to get rid of me..us…whatever."

"Oh boy," Kim said. "What happened? People end up dead?"

"Worse," Kim said, "Shego took over the world in the future. Ron and I joined up with the resistance there and smashed the idol. The magical backlash reset the timestream and Ron and I vanished into the temporal portal. I remember…"

Kimberly trailed off. Kim quirked an eyebrow. "Kimberly? You okay?"

"I remember disappearing into the portal." Kimberly continued. "I remember knowing that everything was going to be all right. Then Ron and I faded out. And then, a while ago, I don't know how long, I faded in here. Kimmie was there, and she and I set up house here."

"Okay, very weird." Kim said. "And you've been stuck here ever since?"

"Yeah, except, just after I showed up, Shego arrived. Apparently she was from the same time line as Kimmie, and she wasn't happy to be here. She had some sort of time travel gizmo with her. Kimmie and I tried to get it away from her, or at least convince her to help us get out of here, but it didn't work."

"I assume this was the Shego who came and saw me back in what I guess would be Kimmie's past?" Kim asked. Kimberly looked at her, puzzled.

"I'm not following you." she said. "Aside from the grammar, that was just a weird sentence."

"Maybe I better tell you what's been happening to me, before you go on with your story." Kim said. She then outlined everything that had happened to her up to her arrival in the frozen Middleton. When she finished, Kimberly nodded.

"All right, I think I've got it now." she said. "Shego didn't mention going back in time to see you when she first got here. She said something about wandering around building the time travel gizmo and trying to fix everything. She freaked out something fierce when she saw the two of us for the first time."

"So, if she got out of here and came to see me, how did she leave in the first place? If her time travel gizmo wasn't working, and Kimmie's been here ever since Shego started trying to fix things so the nuke didn't go off, and YOU just showed up out of nowhere, there must be some other way out, right?"

Kimberly's expression turned dark. "There is...but it's not something you want to go through. Shego went through it and we heard her screams for a full hour after she had vanished."

"What did she do?" Kim said.

"The Timebreaker ate her." came another voice. Kim and Kimberly looked up to see Kimmie standing in the doorway to the kitchen. Kim frowned.

"What did you say?" she asked. Kimberly got up from the table and went over to Kimmie.

"Kimmie, why don't you go back to the movie, okay? I'll bring you...something in a--"

"Let her stay." Kim said sharply. She stood up and walked over to Kimmie. "What did you say happened to Shego, Kimmie?"

Kimmie looked at Kim, then at Kimberly, then down at the floor. "She...the Timebreaker ate her."

Kim nodded. "What is the Timebreaker, Kimmie?"

"Kim, don't--" Kimberly said, but Kim cut her off by holding up a hand.

"Kimmie?" she asked. "I need to know. What is the Timebreaker?"

"It's bad." Kimmie said quietly looking at the floor. "It put me here."

Kim and Kimberly frowned and looked at each other.

"News to me." Kimberly said to Kim's questioning expression. Kim turned back to her other self.

"How did the Timebreaker put you here?" Kim asked.

"Shego left me. She said I could go off and die for all she cared. She was gone for a long time. Then, things started changing. And the shadows...the shadows..."

Suddenly, Kimmie let out an ear piercing shriek and collapsed against the wall. She flailed her hands against her face, letting out a series of sobs and smaller screams. Kimberly bolted from her seat and pulled her into a sitting position, and pulled the cheerleader's hands away from her face.

"Kimmie, calm down! It's okay. It's not here, the shadows can't get you."

"They ALWAYS GET ME! IT always gets me! It gets us! It hates us! It wants to kill us all!" Kimmie wailed. Kimberly pulled Kimmie into her arms and rocked the deranged Possible back and forth, stroking her hair.

"Shhh...it's okay...I'm here." she whispered. She glared up at Kim. "The Timebreaker is this nasty shadow thing that keeps us here. Any time we try to find a way out of this place. wherever the hell it is, it shows up and tries to kill us. Shego found out her time travel gizmo started working when she got close to it. She turned it on and charged the damn thing. Last thing we saw, there was a green flash, right as she vanished into the Timebreaker. We never saw her again. Happy now?"

"I did." Kimmie sniffled. Kimberly pulled back and looked at her.

"What?"

Kimmie wiped her eyes and looked at her other selves. "When I found Kim, Shego was there. She was going to hurt Kim so I threw a rock behind her. She heard it and ran away. Then Kim woke up."

"Shego is back?" Kimberly asked, her face serious. Kimmie nodded.

Kim frowned. "If Shego ended up here with me, she's not going to be happy."

Kimberly nodded. "And if she's not happy with you, the first place she's going to show up is--"

It was, of course, at that point that Shego crashed through the kitchen window. Kimmie screamed and dove under the table while Kim and Kimberly went into a battle stance.

Shego glared around the kitchen, eyes glowing green and her entire body was outlined in her bioplasmic aura. She snarled as her eyes landed on the twin Possibles.

"All right, that's IT!" Shego said. "One Kim Possible is bad enough, but there's no way in hell I'm getting stuck in another reality crack with THREE of them." She hurled a set of energy bolts at the Kims in front of her. They sprang away from each other as the bolts crashed into the fridge, sending time frozen food in every direction. Kim rolled out of the kitchen into the dining room, got to her feet and unleashed a flying kick back into the kitchen at Shego.

Shego threw up an arm blocking the kick, then responded with one of her own. Kim went flying back across the kitchen. She braced for impact, then felt someone grab her arm. She glanced up and caught an glimpse of Kimberly. She winked at Kim, then spun in place and sent her flying back towards Shego. Kim grinned, then somersaulted in mid air and planted both feet into Shego's chest.

Shego flew backwards towards the counter under the broken window. She grabbed the edge of the counter and handsprung back towards Kim. The two collided and rolled into the living room. Kim dodged Shego's flaming claws, then thrust a knee into the supervillain's stomach. Shego's eyes widened and she deflared as the air rushed from her lungs. Kim extended her leg and sent Shego through the door to the dining room, crashing through the dining room table.

Shego snarled and sat up, only to be knocked back down to the ground by Kimberly. She pinned Shego's arms to the floor with her knees.

"Gotcha!" Kimberly said, grinning. Shego responded with an evil grin of her own.

"That's what you think, Princess."

There was an explosion of green light and Kimberly flew into the ceiling of the living room before falling back to the floor. Shego rolled out of the wreckage of the dining room table as the chandelier came loose from its moorings and crashed to the floor. She got to her feet, froze then turned just in time to grab Kim's foot as it tried to connect with her head.

"Sorry, Kimmie," She said, spinning in place, and letting Kim fly back out of the dining room into the hallway. "Not today!"

Kim sailed through the air near the staircase. She reached up and grabbed the chandelier hanging above the stairs. She shifted her weight and began using the light fixture to swing back towards the dining room, intending to fly back through the doorway and tackle Shego. It was a sound plan, and would have probably been quite effective if the chandelier hadn't chosen that moment to also separate itself from the ceiling.

"WHOOOAAAA!" Kim cried as she suddenly dropped from the ceiling, still holding the chandelier. She quickly tossed it away and crashed into the bannister of the staircase, causing it to crack and break in several places, leaving shafts of wood pointing up in all directions. The chandelier crashed to the hardwood floor, sending glass shards skittering across the floor.

Kim rolled onto her back, the room spinning. She closed her eyes and rubbed the bridge of her nose.

Okay, she thought, Going to have to rethink the strategy here. She got to her feet and started back towards the dining room. As she reached the door, here eyes widened and she dropped to the floor as Shego and Kimberly came flying into the hallway. Both women crashed to the floor, separated, then got to their feet.

"Give it up, Shego! This isn't solving anything!" Kimberly said, wiping sweat out of her eyes.

"Maybe not, but it's sure as hell making me feel better!" Shego reared back and fired a pair of energy bolts at the two Kims. They dodged out of the way, the bolts crashed into the ceiling and door frame, causing plaster and insulation to explode across the room. Shego smiled and leaped back into the fray.

--

Outside the house, under the backyard hedges, the shadows cast by the immobile flames from the nearby houses began to roll, merge, and flow together. The entire mass broke away from the trunks of the hedges and began moving across the lawn, increasing in size as it moved. As it reached the back door and began to work it's way under the gap between the door and the front step, a pair of glowing purple eyes became visible.

--

As the sounds of the fight in the hallway drifted back to her, Kimmie covered her ears with her hands and tried to blot them out. She didn't want any more fighting. No more hurting other people. She just wanted them all to stop and get along. She curled up on her side and began humming, trying not to listen to the fight.

As she turned away from the dining room, she saw something moving underneath the back door. She stared as a shadow began worming its way under the door. As it got bigger, Kimmie's eyes got wider. The shadow paused for a moment once it was inside the kitchen, then it began darting across the floor towards her. Kimmie sat up sharply, banging her head on the table. She ignored the pain and scrabbled backwards, trying to get away form the violet eyes that had just appeared in the shadow.

Her feet finally found purchase on the tile floor and she dashed through the dining room into the hallway.

"IT'S HERE!"

--

As Shego leaped into the air, she was tacked around the legs by Kim. Shego's momentum carried her forward, giving Kimberly the chance to leap up and grab her wrists. The three young women fell to the floor. As they fell, Shego strained her muscles and bent in half, kicking her legs forward. Kim lost her grip and collided with Kimberly, causing the other Possible to lose her grip on Shego's wrists. All three hit the floor hard, letting out groans of pain.

Shego was the first to recover, getting to her feet and flaring up her fists. The Possibles managed to get to their knees than hit the floor as Shego hurled more energy bolts at them. Kim looked over at Kimberly.

"I've had just about enough of this." she said.

Kimberly nodded. "On three?"

"THREE!"

The two of them sprang to their feet and began charging Shego. Shego braced her legs for the impact, pulling her fists back. Kim and Kimberly raised their own fists and--

"IT'S HERE!"

Kimmie came dashing into the room, tripped over a fragment of the bannister and collided headlong with her other selves. Kim and Kimberly let out yelps of surprise as they fell forward, catching Shego off guard. Kim slammed into Shego, forcing the supervillian off her feet. Shego flailed her arms trying to get purchase on something, but one foot slipped on a shard of glass from the chandelier. Her feet flew out from under her, and her expression turned to outright disbelief as she fell onto one of the pointed pieces of the bannister.

The shaft of wood slammed through Shego's back and back out her chest, piercing the lungs and cutting off her cries of pain. Blood welled into her mouth and throat, turning the few sounds she was able to make into a series of sickening gurgles. The green glow around her body flickered, flared up briefly, then died.

The three Kims looked at her. Kim stood up and went over to her fallen enemy, trying to keep down the vomit that she could feel rising in her throat. She looked down at Shego's shocked expression, and knew.

She never felt worse in her entire life. She felt her eyes water and wiped them with the back of her hand. She swallowed her bile, and turned back to her other selves.

"What's here..." Kim trailed off as she saw Kimberly and Kimmie frozen in a glowing purple light. Both had expressions of horror on their faces. Behind them, a giant shadow filled the doorway leading to the dining room, the blackness obscuring the details of the room. The shadow was growing, beginning to fill the hallway. Two menacing glowing purple eyes glared at Kim and she felt her throat close up.

There was another flash of purple light and Kim found herself frozen to the spot, enveloped in another energy field. She stared helplessly, her mouth and throat paralyzed as the shadow swallowed Kimmie and Kimberly. Kim was certain that Kimmie was trying to scream during the entire process.

The shadow grew and the purple, hate filled eyes came closer. The shadow flowed up the staircase and over Shego's lifeless body. Soon, Kim could no longer see any of the house. Only blackness and the eyes. She tried to swallow but her muscles wouldn't co-operate. She eyes came closer to her, filling her vision. They narrowed, examining her. Sizing her up.

Then, Kim heard a deep, unearthly voice inside her head.

_Timebreaker._

She too, felt like screaming as the shadows swallowed her, smothering her in the darkness.


	12. Kimprobability

**CHAPTER 11: Kimprobability**

"Hello? HELLO?!" Kim yelled out into the darkness. No sound came back. Not even an echo. "Kimberly? Kimmie?"

The darkness was almost total. Kim wasn't quite certain how she was able to see herself, when there was no light source, but then, she guessed she was in a place where the laws of physics no longer applied.

"Please let them be all right." She said to herself. Figuring that one direction was as good as another, she started walking further into the darkness.

Time passed. Then more time passed. And even more time passed. Finally, after some interminable amount of time had passed since she began walking, Kim sat down on what, in the absence of any other information, she could only call the ground. She drew her knees up and rested her head on them.

"I'm tired." She said aloud. It seemed better than listening to the silence, no matter how crazy it made her sound.

"But maybe I'm already crazy." She said. "I mean, what do you call rewiritng history over and over again, only making things worse each time? Is that rational? Heh. What IS rational? I've been eaten by a giant shadow. How's that for rational?"

Kim shook her head and got back to her feet. "I need to stop that. Otherwise I probably will go crazy."

She began walking through the darkness again. After a while, she became aware of a faint outline appearing in the darkness. She frowned and picked up her pace. As she got closer, she saw tha the figure was human.

It was also lying on the ground, which made Kim realize who she had just found.

She slowed down, reluctant to get closer, but she still felt drawn to the only other person she had seen in this…place. Time. Whatever. As she got closer she swallowed nervously. While the piece of bannister was no longer there, the hole in in Shego's chest was still there, a ring of dried blood surrounding the wound. Kim kneeled down and shook Shego's shoulder.

There was no response. Naturally.

Kim flopped down on the ground. So this was it then. Trapped in a formless void with only the dead body of her worst enemy for company for eternity.

"Maybe I deserve this, Shego." Kim said aloud. "Maybe I should have just listened to you and tried to grab the remote on Monday. Maybe I should have just accepted that Ron was dead but I saved everybody else. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to mess around with history. And now..."

She trailed off and looked back at Shego. The supervillain's eyes were closed and if it wasn't for the gaping hole in her chest, she looked like she was only sleeping. Kim swallowed again.

"I'm sorry, Shego." she said quietly. "I'm sorry for everything."

_Sorry doesn't excuse you for what you did._

Kim's head snapped up at the sound of the odd, echoing voice that came from nowhere. Or possibly, everywhere.

"Who's there?" Kim said, frowning. "Come out here."

_I already am._

There was a blazing flash of purple light and Kim threw a hand up to shield her eyes as two giant glowing eyes appeared in the darkness above her. The eyes cast a large field of purple over Kim's immediate area, illuminating her and Shego's body. The glow receded slightly, allowing Kim to put her hand down. She looked at the giant eyes, instinctively moving into a battle stance, even though her brain was screaming at her to start running as fast as she could.

The eyes narrowed, then a bolt of violet light shot out from them and struck Shego. The body started shaking as the energy flowed throughit, and it rose into the air, the purple energy flowing over the entire form. Kim stared as Shego's fingers started twitching, then she moved into a standing position and stood in front of her. The glow disappeared, as did the eyes. Kim took a cautious step towards Shego.

Shego turned her head and opened her eyes. Her normal green eyes were gone, replaced by the glowing purple eyes that had been staring at Kim earlier. Kim took another step towards the older woman.

"Shego?" Kim asked.

Shego opened her mouth, and when she spoke, while it was still her voice, there was a deeper, echoing tone that came from underneath it.

"_No. I'm just borrowing her body for the moment." _"Shego" frowned. _ "Do you know what I am?"_

Kim nodded, her throat suddenly dry. "You're the Timebreaker."

"Shego's" lip curled up into her familiar rueful smile. "_No, Kim. YOU'RE the Timebreaker."_

Kim stared at her reanimated nemesis. "That's impossible."

_"Anything is possible for a Possible...even if she unravels the very fabric of time. What did you think was going to happen when you and Shego began this litte experiment to undo what Time had gone to so much trouble to enact."_

"What?" Kim said. "What do you mean 'what Time had gone to so much trouble to enact?'"

"Shego" laughed. It wasn't the same as Shego's normal laugh. It was a deep booming laugh that made Kim feel completely stupid and useless.

"_You humans are so amusing. The universe is much more vast and unfathomable than you can possibly comprehend. Time has a plan, my dear Kimberly. It's called History. And when someone tries to change that plan, Time doesn't like it. Shego said it correctly. If you wish to change history, a price will have to be paid. And when someone tries to get out of paying that price, they become a Timebreaker. And they send me to collect."_

"You're telling me that I broke time?" Kim said. "Just by trying to save the world?"

"_In this case? Yes. Ask her..."_ "Shego" gestured, and a glowing cloud of purple enrgy appeared in front of Kim. Kim stared in horror as the image of Mim Possible appeared in the cloud. Mim was running down the streets of earth 20th Century Middleton, running from an ever widening web of cracks that were spreading out and breaking everything, including the sky. But after a moment, it was clear Mim wasn't going to escape. The cracks caught up and then the entire scene shattered and Mim disappeared into the darkness, screaming all the way.

"BRING HER BACK!" Kim yelled, turning back to "Shego," who just folded her arms and looked at her.

"_I told you, a price must be paid. And if you are unwilling to pay the price yourself, or allow Ron Stoppable to pay that price, someone else connected to you will."_

"So someone has to die. Is that what you're saying?" Kim said. "In order to save everybody from World War III, somebody has to die."

_"Not necessarily."_

Kim's face twisted up into an expression of disbelief. "But I thought you just said--"

"_I did."_

"Shego" raised her hand and pointed her first two fingers. Two blasts of purple light flared and Kim saw Kimmie and Kimberly standing in front of her, still frozen in the violent energy fields. There was another flash, and Kim staggered as a weight appeared in her hand. She looked down and she sucked in her breath as she recognized what had just been give to her.

The gun.

Kim looked at "Shego," who said nothing. Kim frowned and lifted the gun up, sliding out the clip. As she suspected, it was filled with live ammo. She slid the clip back in and looked back at "Shego."

"_A price must be paid."_

Kim found herself raising the gun. She held it in both hands and pointed it first as Kimberly, then at Kimmie, then back again. She held the gun for an inderterminate amount of time, then turned back to "Shego," glared at her and hurled the gun into the darkness.

"There's been too much death. I don't care if they're part of timelines that don't exist anymore. I'm not going to kill them just to get you to fix everything."

"Shego" shrugged. "_So be it, then. Give my regards to Rufus."_ She thrust both hands out quickly and blasted Kim full force with a wave of violet energy. Kim flew across the space between her and her otherselves and collided with both of them. The purple glow increast in brightness, washing out her vision. She heard screaming and realized it was herself, and her other selves, their screams overlapping each other in a very twisted harmony.

The purple light grew brighter and brighter, and began to change from a light purple to a deep blue. Then into an electric blue. Kim's ears were ringing and she couldn't hear the screams anymore.

The darkness exploded with a brilliant flash of electric blue fire.

--

Kim's vision slowly came into focus. Her ears were still ringing, but not as badly as before. As the images in front of her stopped jumping around, she discovered she was laying on the ground, staring up into the sky. She sat up--

_...aloneallalonedyingalldyingdeadron'srighteveryoneinthefutureISrippedobediencecollarsthisisjustnuts..._

Kim winced and put a hand to her head. A parade of words and images ran across her brain. She shook her head and the voices and thoughts quieted down. When her mind was clear, she looked around and realized that she was back in the warehouse district. She glanced down at her wrist at the Tempex device.

Which wasn't there. But her watch was, and it was the Sunday she had gone to the warehouse, about twenty minutes before the her with the blank ammunition was scheduled to show up. Kim got to her feet and glanced around. She topped short when she saw a message scrawled into some graffiti on one of the nearby walls.

**LAST CHANCE, KIM. **

Kim frowned, and looked around for the reanimated Shego. She saw no one. The district was fairly silent except for the sound of distant traffic and a few birds. She turned back to the wall, and wasn't at all surprised to see the message was gone.

_Okay, let's assess the situation,_ Kim thought, _I'm back at the warehouse district, before any of my previous selves get here. That thing, whatever it is, is giving me one last chance to fix everything, presumably without anybody having to die. That means it must know of a way for me to do all this..._

Kim began walking towards the warehouse. As she did so, odd thoughts and images came to her. Older, buffer versions of the Tweebs blasting into a nightmare version of Middleton High. Pawing through warm food from an overtrurned refrigerator. Fighting an older and considerably more muscular Drakken as an older gray haired Shego looked on laughing. Lying in a puddle of her own fluids as she struggled to move her dying body.

As the images came faster and faster, there was a sudden flash in her mind of the two Rufuses in the Bueno Nacho, then later behind the Smarty Mart. Kim blinked and the images vanished as her mouth curled up into a grin. She knew what had happened to Kimmie and Kimberly, and how to finally fix everything.

She glanced down at her watch again, made a decision, and began running towards the warehouse.

--

She picked the lock on the side door again, and slipped inside. She didn't waste any time but went and hid behind the pile of tarp covered crates in the corner. She glanced at her watch and figured she had about ten minutes before Blank Ammo Kim, as she thought of that particular early version of herself, showed up. She glanced around the warehouse, recalling where each of her other selves would eventually end up and making plans accordingly.

After a few minutes, she heard the lock on the side door click, and she got one knee, biding her time. Out on the warehouse floor, the door opened and Blank Ammo Kim walked inside. Kim forced herself to wait as the other her explored the warehouse. She held her breath as Blank Ammo Kim walked over to the crates, lifted up the tarp, and moved on. Kim softly let her breath out, then began climbing up the tarp to the top of the crates. She slowly climbed onto the top of the crates, keep herself as flat as possible, bending her elbows slightly, keeping her hands flat on the crate below her.

Blank Ammo Kim stopped in the middle of the warehouse floor, her back to the crates. She put her hands on her hips, and Kim tensed up, ready to strike.

"Is it really too much to ask that the temporary evil lair have at least two decent hiding places?" she aksed. No sooner were the words out of her mouth than Kim sprang from the top of the crates and tackled Blank Ammo Kim to the ground. The two of them rolled across the floor, coming to a stop near the catwalk ladder. Blank Ammo Kim stared at Kim as they rolled to a stop.

"What the hell?" she cried. Kim ignored her, but grabbed Blank Ammo Kim's face in her hands and looked into her eyes and concentrated. Blank Ammo Kim struggled , but Kim used her elbows to pin her arms to the floor. Blank Ammo Kim's looked aroudn in panic as a blue nimbus of energy began to form around the two of them.

"What are you DOING?" she demanded. The blue nimbus was around both of them and beginning to brighten in shade. Kim looked back at her earlier self.

"Saving everybody, including us." Kim replied. She grinned as she heard the ringing in her ears begin and the expression on Blank Ammo Kim's face told her she could hear it too. The energy field surrounding them turrned electric blue, then there was a flash, a whiff of ozone, and Kim sat up, shaking her head again. Blank Ammo Kim was nowhere to be found.

Kim smiled as she felt the memories of Blank Ammo Kim run through her head. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the ammo clip loaded with the blank ammunition.

"One down, two to go." she said, putting the clip back in her pocket. Then she heard the clicking of the lock on the side door. Kim quickly got to her feet, ignoring the dizziness, pulled out her grapple gun, fired, and pulled herself into the rafters. She began making her way over towards the catwalk, as Gun Wielding Kim walked into the warehouse. Kim frowned as she waited impatiently for her other self to climb to the catwalk.

Gun Wielding Kim climbed the catwalk, sat down, took out the gun, and studied it. Kim wanted to jump down there right then, but held back. The last thing she needed was for the gun to go off accidentally again and kill one of them. Gun Wielding Kim finished arguing with herslef nad pocketed the gun. Kim began climbing over the rafters slowly, taking her time, not wanting to wake the sleeping her up. When she was over the catwalk, she slowly lowered herself down, hanging down from the rafters, then dropping lightly to the catwalk.

The catwalk vibrated slightly as she landed. Gun Weilding Kim stirred, but relaxed and went back to sleep. Kim walked down the catwalk, kneeled down and qucikly put one hand on Gun Weildking Kim's shoulder and clapped a hand over her mouth. Gun Weilding Kim's eyes shot open and she started struggling, but Kim used a leg to keep her from movie. Kim said nothing but looked into Gun Wielding Kim's eyes and concentrated. The blue nimbus reappeared and began to glow.

"Sorry, but killing Shego isn't the answer. Trust me. It isn't worth it." she said. Gun Wielding Kim made a quizzical sounds and the ringing in Kim's hears began again. Another flash, another whiff of ozone, and once again, there was only one Kim Possible in the warehouse. Kim put a hand to her head again then let herself stretch out on the catwalk, waiting for the room to stop spinning and Gun Weilding Kim's memories to settle down. As she did so, she felt a rustling in her pocket and Rufus popped out and crawled up to Kim's chest.

"Kim?" he chittered. Kim raised her head and smiled.

"I'm okay, Rufus. Just a last minute change of plans." she said, sitting up. She grabbed the mole rat and held him in her palm. "Rufus, do you trust me?"

Rufus looked at her quizzically, then nodded.

"Then no matter what happens, just keep trusting me, will you?" she asked.

Rufus nodded. Kim smiled, and kissed him on the top of his head. Rufus blushed and crawled back into Kim's pocket. Kim checked her watch, and moved back against the wall. She pulled the gun out of her holster pocket, pulled out the gun, switched the clips, then put it back int he holster pocket. She took her backpack off and rumaged through it, pulling out her grapple gun and setting it at her side. She leaned back against the wall and waited for Drakken and Shego to arrive.

--

As soon as she heard the truck pull up outside of the warehouse, Kim flattened herself out on the catwalk, and peered over the edge. She watched again as Drakken's henchmen herded the elephants in, and Drakken dropped the TV on his foot. Shego walked over to the elphants and Drakken located the remote. As Shego sat down to watch TV, Kim leaned back against the wall, and waited.

This time, the three hours passed ridiculously slow. Kim figured she had checked her watch no less than 137 times and that Shego had been watching the same TV show three times over when she noticed the original her's and Ron's silohuettes in the skylight. She hooked the grapple gun to her belt, and climbed back into the rafters. She watched once again as the scene played out. Ron woke up Drakken and Shego. Shego attacked her original self. Ron skidded on the peanuts and released the elephants. Kim's orignal self tossed the remot eunder the stampede destorying it and was blasted by Drakken's glue gun.

Kim nodded as soon as she saw her original self get captured, and Ron began his swing down to cause a distraction. She dropped from the rafters, pulled the gun from her holster pocket and fired a blank towards the ceiling. She quickly ducked down, and took aim with the grapple gun at Ron who was rolling across the floor with Shego.

"What the!" Drakken said, looking around. "Who's shooting?"

"For that matter, who here has a gun?" Ron said, from where he was laying on top of Shego. Shego frowned up at him.

"I don't know, but you have exactly until the count of three to GET THE HELL OFF ME!"

Kim fired the grapple gun, felt it hook around Ron's belt, then quickly tossed the grapple gun over the railing of the catwalk. She took hold and leaped off, letting the railing and grapple cable act as pulley. Ron's pants tore free, and Kim quickly dropped to the floor of the warehouse, rolled to break her fall, and dashed over to where the other Rufus was using Ron's laser chapstick to free her original self. Her original self, and the original Rufus gowped at her. Kim put a finger to her lips and took the laser chapstick from Rufus, finishing cutting theough the glue.

"I don't have time to explain, but you have to trust me." She turned off the chapstick, pulled the Rufus in her pocket out and held both naked mole rats together before either could do more than squeak in surprise. There was a flash of light and one Rufus staggered in kim's hand before passing out. Kim nodded, then grabbed her original self and looked into h er eyes.

"Trust me. Otherwise, we lose." She said. The original Kim opened her mouth, but then nodded. Kim concentrated and the blue glow flowed around them and ringing in their ears became almost deafening. The flash came and Kim, closed her eyes quickly, trying to force the memories to settle down so she could function.

Across the room, Ron had gotten off Shego, and both of them turned towards the flash of light. Shego's eyes widened as she thought she saw two Kim Possibles for a moment, before her vision cleared and there was only one.

One Kim Possible, who was NOT glued to the wall anymore.

_The hell with this_, she thought. _Time to go. _She dove into the hovercar, activated it and turned it towards Drakken.

"Yo, Dr. D! Were outta here!"

"No! We have her at our mercy!" Drakken snarled. He turned back to gloat, only to find Kim standing in front of him. He also noticed the very recognizable shape of a gun in her holster pocket.

"Who was at WHO'S mercy?" she asked, quirking one eyebrow and smiling.

Drakken, turned back in Shego's direction. "Shego! Time to go!"

Shego piloted the hovercar over to Drakken, who jumped in. Shego wrenched the controls and flew the hovercar out of the hole the elephants had left in the wall. As they departed, Drakken turned and glared at Kim and Ron.

"You think you're all that, Kim Possible, but you're NOT!"

The hovercar disappeared into the night.

Kim's smile widened as she felt the conflicting memories in her head merge and fade. She wasn't sure, but it certainly felt like she had finally fixed everything.

Behind her, Ron had located his pants and put them on, fastening his belt as he came up to her.

"Well, I think that's a record for us in the saving the world thing, don'tcha think, KP?"

Kim turned to face him, smiled, then grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him into a deep and somewhat relieved kiss. Ron gasped for air when she finally let him go.

"Oh yeah, very much a record." Kim replied. "Let's get out of here."

"What abour Shego and Drakken?" Ron said, a little dazed. "Shouldn't we go after them?"

Kim shook her head. "I'm feeling charitable tongiht. Believe me, after everything that she's not going to go through now, Shego deserves a quiet night."

"Ookay, didn't understand a word of that," Ron said as he picked up Rufus and put him in his pocket. Kim giggled.

"Don't worry about it. I'll explain everything...well, nearly everything, when we get dinner. I'm hungry again. Is the Bueno Nacho in Lowerton still 24 hours?"

"Always!" Ron said. As the two of them walked out of the hole in the side of the warehouse, Kim broke away from Ron.

"Just one sec, I need to throw something away." She walked to a nearby dumpster, pulled the gun from her holster pocket, took the clip out, and yanked the slide out so viloently that it bent and locked into position. Useless.

_I'll dump the blanks in Lowerton, and bury the regular ammo somewhere else. Somewhere the Tweebs won't be able to find it. _

"KP?" Ron's voice drifted from aroudn the corner of the warehouse. "You coming?"

"On my way!" Kim said, walking back towards him. "Oh, and Ron?"

"Yeah?"

"When we get to Bueno Nacho, you're paying."

"Awww, man!"

**--**

A hundred years in the past, Miriam Possible finds herself waking up on the rim of the fountain in front of Middleton City Hall. She has no idea how she got there, or why she had apparently decided to take a nap. She gathers her wits, begins walking home and decides to put the incident out of her mind. Yet, for some reason, she feels that the words "taco stand" are important. The feeling goes away after a week.

--

In a small, roadside motel just outside Middleton, Shego stands in the shower, letting the high pressure showerhead pummel her stiff muscles into something resembling flexibility. She isn't happy that Kim Possible beat her once again, but for some reason, she isn't as angry about it as she would normally be. If anything, she actually feels...relieved. As if something that had been worrying her had finally been taken care of once and for all.

She turns the shower off, dries herself with a towel, wraps it around her body, wraps her hair in another towel and goes out into her room. A turkey sanwich wrapped in foil is sitting on the sink. She unwraps it and sinks her teeth into it. She isn't certain why, but she feels ravenous.

She takes the sandwich to the bed and grabs the remote, clicking on the TV in search of something to watch.

--

A little later, Kim Possible returns to her house. She climbs the stairs to her room , changes out of her mission clothes into her sleepwear, and flops into bed. After lying on the covers for a while, she forces herself to crawl under them. She knows Monkey Fist will have to be dealt with in the morning, but she's certain that it won't be a problem, since she knows where he is and what to do. And she's fairly certain that even if things get out of hand, she'll find a solution.

As she drifts off to sleep, a voice enters her head, one that has plagued her since the entire adventure began. Only this time, it's softer, gentler. Almost friendly.

_This is the way the world begins..._

---

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Thanks to Brian Taylor, the members of the SFMB2 AIM chat room, and all those who were kind enough to stick with me through this long strange trip.

Pop Culture Easter Eggs:

Chapter 1: "Tell Dr. Banzai hi for me, and tell Reno he still owe me lunch for losing that darts game." --_ The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension_

Chapter 3: "If these second rate, second string, overinflated, Guild rejected nimrods with pudding for brains want to throw down and try to get to Kim Possible before we do, then I say BRING! IT! ON!" -- A reference to The Guild of Calamitous Intent from _The Venture Bros._

Chapter 6: "Oh, for crying out loud," Kim muttered. "One lousy spy flick and everybody has to have the same gadget."-- A reference to the first _Mission: Impossible_ movie.


	13. Deleted Scene

**Found this in my files, thought it might be interesting to see. I took it out of the main story since it didn't quite click with the flow.**

** This scene takes place between Cassandra's Tears and Inversion.  
**

** Enjoy!**

** ---**

**Last Minute Revelation**

By Drakken's count, he had been listening to the heart monitor for the better part of two weeks. That was how long he'd been hiding out at this hospital in Switzerland, ever since Kim Possible had gone, to put it mildly, stark raving mad.

He hated having to wear the suit and the makeup to cover his blue skin. He hated having to wear his old glasses and bring back the "Drew Lipsky, UberNerd" look. He hated being in hiding somewhere other than one of his many lairs around the world.

The heart monitor beeped again, bringing him out of his reverie. He looked over at Shego. She looked worse than he had ever seen her. It took nearly all the loose cash he had on him to bribe a couple of the hospital staff who recognized her. Of course, the green tinged skin was probably a giveaway, brusies and bandages aside.

She had tubes in her arms, tubes in her nose, sensors over most of her body, and one eye that had swelled to cover a full quarter of her face. She hadn't woken up since the night of the warehouse, and frankly, Drakken was starting to get worried.

He'd referred to the partnership she and Shego had as a family. An evil family, but a family nonetheless. Sure, it had started out as a typical employee/employer relationship, but as time had gone on, it had turned into something deeper.

Not romantic. Drakken was just under the age that he could pass as her father. Not necessarily a brother/sister kind of family either. Maybe it was just the fact that neither of them really had anyone else. Sure, Drakken had his mother and Ed, and Shego had her superhero brothers, but neither of them really felt any sort of connection to their respective family members.

He wasn't really sure if it was friendship either. Shego belittled and ridiculed him at every opportunity. But then, she still went through with whatever plan had come to his mind, even if she thought it was the dumbest thing ever. What did that say?

He didn't know. But he did know that if he lost her, he wouldn't know what to do. Well, outside of a horrible bloody vengance against Kim Possible.

That was the other thing. Kim Possible had always been a model of restraint and control. But this last time, she seemed preoccupied, and then with the death of the buffoon, she had just gotten scary. Never had he seen Kim so angry, so violent. It made him wonder just what the world would have been in for if she had decided to be one of the bad guys.

"Drew…?"

Drakken blinked, and looked back over at Shego. Her non-swollen eye had opened and she was peering around.

"Shego? You okay?" he said.

"I've had fourteen kinds of crap beaten out of me by a cheerleader, I'm in unending pain, and I strongly suspect I'm on the business end of a catheter. I am definitely not okay." She answered. "Where are we?"

"Switzerland. It was one of the few places where there isn't an active warrant out for us. Not only that, money makes a lot of people look the other way here."

"How long have I been out?"

"Two weeks. The doctors say that you're looking at a lot of recovery." Drakken answered.

"No, I'm not." Shego leaned her head back against the pillow.

"That's the spirit!" Drakken said exuberantly, coming closer to the bed. "You'll get well and we will take revenge on Kim Possible!"

"Yeah, sure, revenge." Shego said quietly. "Sounds like fun."

Drakken blinked. "Shego? Are you sure you're all right? I've never known you not to be up for carnage laden revenge."

"Sharon." Shego murmured, closing her eyes.

"What?"

"My name is Sharon. Sharon Egan."

Drakken looked at her. "You told me your real name. You said your real name was none of my business."

Shego didn't say anything. Her head turned away from him. Drakken leaned over her.

"Shego?" He paused. "Sharon?"

The heart monitor stopped beeping and began emitting a sustained high pitched whine.


End file.
